Return to Shadows
by Aunty M
Summary: In this installment, heroin Rose Hathaway picks up where she left off in Last Sacrifice. There are wedding bells in the future, along with spirit charms and evil Strigoi. Robert Doru has more in store for her and it will require Rose to fight harder than she's ever had to before. She's faced with the choice of freedom or love. What will she choose?
1. Chapter One

**AN: This is the first chapter in what I hope to be a full-sized book. It's also my first _real _FanFic. Be kind and enjoy.**

Chapter 1

My hands ran over the jade chiffon dress that fell to my feet. One last check in the mirror told me that no, jade was not my color, and yes, Lissa definitely picked out the flowing empire styled gown. Green was totally her color and I imagined her rocking this dress. I made a mental note to send it to a tailor after today so that she could wear it in one of her fancy meetings. I was grateful she had told me to wear my hair down though. Without it, I'd look perpetually seasick. I'd styled it in thick waves and pinned one side back, but it didn't quite take away from the weirdness of seeing myself in a dress that would better fit a queen.

"Whatever," I mumbled with a slight smile. "It's her day."

That was all I had time for. I turned on my heel and walked away from the wall-mounted mirror that stood in the corridor to Lissa's suite. The small, cream box that I'd been holding in my hand was a reminder that I had to move quickly. It wasn't a long hall, but the gold heels I was wearing made it harder to balance. How great would it be if Guardian Hathaway needed healing for a twisted ankle on a day like this?

The thought of "Guardian Hathaway" made my smile grow and my stomach jump. It'd only been eight months since I'd been reinstated to protect Lissa, queen of the rare magic-using vampire race, Moroi, and my best friend since kindergarten. Of course, just over a year ago we'd been students at St. Vladimir's Academy, and a year before that we'd been on the run and living among humans. For all of that we were also psychically bonded. Honestly, I was surprised anything surprised me anymore.

Still, thinking of myself as a Guardian was the biggest shock of all. As a dhampir, I'd been trained since birth to protect and defend Moroi (the good guys) from the evil undead Strigoi (the bad guys.) After a seriously eventful year in and out of St. Vlad's with Lissa, I sort of ruled myself out of the whole "guarding" situation. My ideal future was to get a filing job at the Moroi court. Even that future was almost taken though, when I got accused of killing Lissa's predecessor, the late Queen Tatiana Ivashkov. Of course I had been innocent, but had most of the Moroi world believe that? No. The evidence was stacked high against me and I had to go on the run to avoid execution. Once the real killer was found, my Guardian status was reinstated, and I got Lissa.

After everything we'd been through since her parents and brother died, it was hard to believe we were getting a happy ending. Here it was though. I was walking towards it in a flowing dress and gold shoes, with a smile plastered to my face.

I opened the door and saw her familiar room pan out before me. Before she was queen it was decorated in red and silver, the Ivashkov family colors. Now that a Dragomir was back on the throne, greens and gold's filled it. It was Moroi afternoon, (middle of the night) so almost every light in the room was turned on. I don't think any of them could have outshone her, though. She stood in the center next to a full-length mirror, surrounded by busy Moroi women placing and lacing and adjusting. Her platinum hair fell in thick curls around her shoulders and her makeup was done flawlessly. I must have seen it on her five times already, but I'd never seen it like this, with her veil and her glow. I was willing to bet that her aura was shining.

Auras. That's another thing that makes Lissa… special. The magic that bonded us together for almost four years was brought on because Vasilisa Dragomir is a spirit user. Each Moroi specializes in an elemental magic: air, water, fire, or earth. When Liss _didn't_ specialize, (she could do little things with each one but nothing major) people took notice. In the Moroi world, not specializing is like not hitting puberty. It's a major deal. But since she was the last Dragomir, they nodded and smiled and ignored it. When we started noticing that she could do other things though, things that transcended any known element, we started to worry. Her abilities were small at first, but in the car crash that killed her family and almost me, Liss manifested her most powerful gift on me: healing. I was close to death, but she brought me back. Because of that, part of me was bonded to her, something we'd learned was called being Shadow Kissed. There was more to spirit using however, and we found out because we found more people like Liss. (We even found another Shadow Kissed pair in Siberia.) Spirit users can heal, walk dreams, use super compulsion, and see auras. Within two short years, everything in our lives had completely changed because of the newly-discovered element. It gave both of us a lot of reasons to hate the magic, but we still didn't. Even though it took a huge toll on all who were involved with it, the joy it brought in return was definitely worth the sacrifice.

I wasn't a spirit user though, and even the bond between us was gone now. Seeing her there in that dress though, I was still willing to bet money that her aura was as bright as the sun.

"Liss," I breathed.

Her emerald eyes fell on me and her smile widened. "I was wondering when you'd find me. You look amazing!"

I scoffed at her comment and walked closer. "Um excuse me, I think you need to see yourself. Lissa, you look like an angel." My hands found hers and gave them a gentle squeeze.

The dress she painstakingly had made fit her in all the right places. Like my dress, hers was chiffon, but hers was like Cindy Crawford chiffon. I'm pretty sure she had it imported from a different country; they didn't make fabric like that anywhere I'd ever been. It was sleeveless with a soft sweetheart neckline. Ruching hugged the tight natural waist and showed off her tall, slim build. It fanned out at her hips and into a beautiful train. She hadn't wanted the train, but her royal stylist had absolutely insisted. It was already unthinkable for a queen to be showing as much skin as she was, so Liss compromised. The only sparkle on the dress was at the back, where the waistline met the train. A thick patch of jade jewels mingled with shining diamonds and sparkled whenever she moved. The diamond jewelry she wore also added sparkle, but I seriously doubted any of it sparkled more than her eyes did. She was radiant.

"Rose," she laughed, "You'd look good in a brown paper bag with a ponytail."

My witty response was interrupted when Anna, a middle-aged Moroi wedding planner, came gasping into the room. The look on her face sent me into immediate Guardian mode. My senses were alert and my defenses up. I tensed and moved in front of Lissa, asking in a hard voice, "What's wrong?"

Anna, completely oblivious to my change in attitude, yelled "The florist is _still_ placing center pieces in the cocktail room. The ceremony starts in ten minutes and he hasn't even finished that room!"

It took every ounce of my composure not to say what I was really feeling. Lissa, knowing me all-too-well, stepped around me and gave Anna a kind smile before I could give her a piece of my mind.

"I'm sure he'll be done soon. Anna, could you go check on the quartet for me?" Lissa's voice was velvet, and from the look on her face I sensed she was using the slightest bit of compulsion on the woman.

Anna's blue eyes relaxed and the tension in her face lessened. "Oh, yes. I'll be right back." She fluttered out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"Someone needs a drink," I murmured.

"Be nice," chastised Lissa. "Anna's been a big help. I can't imagine the pressure she's under."

"Oh?" I said slyly. "You can't?" Liss was not only the first-known queen to possess spirit, but also the first in history to attend college at the same time she ruled.

"No. I can't. Planning a monarch's wedding is a huge deal and there hasn't been one in almost 70 years."

"How sad for Anna. I should send her a card."

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Oh Rose. What would I do without you?"

"You wouldn't have this," I said as I placed the cream box in her hand.

She looked scandalized. "Rose! You promised me you wouldn't get any presents!"

I had promised her that. "Yeah well, I had crossies behind my back. Open it."

The look I got was one of disapproval but it didn't stop her from opening the lid and pulling out the necklace inside.

"I found it in an antique shop a while back. The jeweler said it's Alexandrite. Pretty rare stuff." A proud smile came to my face.

"It's so beautiful," she whispered.

"Right now it looks red, but in the sunlight it turns a greenish blue. I'm counting it as something old and something blue."

Her hands moved to the back of the diamond sheath necklace she already had on.

"No, you don-"

"Stop," she interrupted. "I want to." The smile on her face told me she meant it.

I helped switch the necklaces and we both admired the way it sat on her pale neck.

"Now all I need is something borrowed and something new."

I smiled mischievously. "I can take care of the something new, too."

I walked over to the bed and pulled out the bag I'd stashed under it a few weeks ago. She gave me some speech about how I was hopeless and needed to keep promises while I did.

"What's this?" She eyed the bag skeptically.

"It's something new," I winked.

She tugged the white tissue paper out and reached inside. When she pulled up the sexy lace garter, her eyes widened.

I laughed and fist-pumped the air. "I'd let you borrow some of my lingerie, but Dimitri would miss it too much."

The look of horror on her face turned into laughter, and between giggles I pushed the lace up her thigh.

"Hey!" she laughed, "that's too high!"

"Christian will appreciate it," I mocked.

The mention of her soon-to-be-husband made her eyes light up. Christian. The Ozera son met Lissa when we returned to St. Vladimir's. He was somewhat of a scandalous choice, seeing as his parents willingly turned Strigoi and his Aunt Tasha murdered the queen and framed me for it, but Christian was a good nugget. Our relationship hadn't always been great, but I knew that he loved Lissa and had every intention of taking care of her.

My thoughts were interrupted when Anna returned. "Your majesty, it's time! Everything is ready to go!"

Lissa and I exchanged an excited look and I gave her a quick hug. "It's show time," I said into her hair.

We followed Anna to the door and continued on, past the mirror I'd stood at only minutes ago. The grand building spread out before us as we turned left and right and then left again, into the foyer of the giant ballroom at the buildings' center. Double gold-plated doors stood before us with two guardians standing watch near them. Jill Mastrano, Lissa's newly-discovered half-sister, met us there with a small smile and a quick bow.

"Hi Lissa," she said quietly. She turned to me and gave a bigger smile and a louder hello, one that I returned.

"Don't be nervous," I said as I hugged her. "You look beautiful."

She really did. Jill usually had crazy, light brown curls that she let fly free. Thankfully, someone took a flat iron to it and styled a thick bun at the nape of her neck. She wore the same dress I did, only hers fell just above her knees and exposed her slender legs. I also noticed that no one had made her wear heels.

I was just about to protest the shoe situation when I noticed a familiar figure enter our gathering. Dimitri Belikov bowed cordially to Lissa and gave Jill a small smile. When his eyes met mine he nodded. The familiar electricity and love surged all around us, but his expression didn't change. I gawked inwardly at the sight of his 6'7", muscled and tanned body in a crisp tux. The soft brown hair that I loved so much was tied into a neat ponytail, and I could smell his aftershave. "Your majesty," his deep, Russian-accented voice said, "You look beautiful."

The history between Dimitri and I was almost as complicated as the one between Lissa and I. When Lissa and I returned to St. Vladimir's, it was against our will and at the hand of Dimitri. He was an incredible guardian who was once set to be hers, along with me. When he was assigned to be my personal mentor, we fell in love. The odds were stacked against us because of his age, position at the Academy, and his assignment to guard Liss. If she was attacked, he would need to protect her. We knew all of that, but I guess love and the universe didn't give a crap. During an attack on St. Vladimir's, Dimitri was turned Strigoi against his will. We found out about another spirit user who had healed a Strigoi back to their original state and jumped on the chance to save him. It worked, but his and mine's happy ending didn't come as quickly as I had wanted it to. Because of guilt over what he had done as a Strigoi, Dimitri pushed me away and insisted he'd never be able to love again. My great hair and our ever-present chemistry won his heart back though, and we'd pledged our love for one another almost five months after he'd turned Strigoi. After an agonizing year of holding back, losing him, and "moving on," he was finally mine to keep.

Lissa didn't care for him romantically, but loved him like she would a brother. "Thank you, Dimitri." She smiled. "But you know you're not supposed to call me Vasilisa. Lissa or Liss works just fine." Her voice took on a light, authoritative tone that made him smile.

"Right. Sorry, Lissa."

"Well," I interrupted, "are you guys ready?"

Nods and smiles were my response as Dimitri and Jill moved to stand in front of us. He offered his arm to her and gave her a warm, encouraging smile. I quietly laughed at the height difference but bit my tongue when I realized I was even shorter than Jill.

Christian didn't have much family that would willingly be around him, and as far as friends went… well, Lissa and I were about all he had. That is however, how it was until Dimitri was assigned to be his Guardian. They'd become fast friends who did normal guy things together when Dimitri wasn't on duty. Seeing them together made Lissa and I smile. It made sense when Christian asked Dimitri to be his best man.

Because Lissa's dad had passed years ago, and she had no other family besides Jill, I was the choice for her escort down the aisle. That didn't bother either of us; we'd been sisters for a long time. It was a little weird though, taking her hand under my arm and falling into step behind music. I'd always known this day was coming. I just hadn't imagined I'd be walking the aisle with her.

I took my place behind Lissa as the maid of honor and watched quietly, slipping into Guardian mode: seen, not heard. It was a beautiful ceremony though, and I had a hard time not choking up. The room was packed with people because honestly, who wouldn't want to see a Queen get married? It was the embodiment of proper Moroi society and traditions, mixed in with what Lissa had wanted before becoming queen. The priest had them recite phrases in English, Russian, and Romanian (as per tradition) but stood silent as they exchanged their own vows. Christian's eyes burned with love and happiness as he told her that he'd never let her go, and Lissa's voice trembled when she said she'd always love him.

When it was over, everyone cheered. The quartet played some oddly joyful tune as we walked out. It was hard to hold back my wicked sweet dance moves. Christin and Lissa went first, I followed, and Dimitri and Jill took up the rear. The cheering crowd continued out the doors and into the hallway that lead to the getaway car. On the lawn around it, Moroi and dhampirs stood in groups and cheered for their King and Queen. I followed them all the way out and was the first to hug Lissa before she got in the car.

"I'll see you in a few hours," I said.

She pulled me to her in a tight hug and smiled. "See you."

I was about to turn around when someone grabbed my arm: Christian. A nod and smile would have been enough for me, but apparently his love for Lissa was compelling him to do amazing things.

"Come here you!" His hug wasn't as tight as hers was, but he held it long enough to whisper, "I love her, too," in my ear.

When I pulled back our eyes met, and a small message of "I know" was shared between us. After a few more hugs and goodbyes, they were off. A convoy of black SUV's followed, each filled with guardians. No matter where they went, they would never be alone.

Familiar arms circled my waist from behind. "You look beautiful, Roza."

"You know, everyone keeps saying that. I really disagree. This color? Not my color."

That got me a smile. "Anything is your color."

"Do you and Lissa practice your lines together? She said the same thing." I thought back to earlier in her room and smiled.

"No. We're both telling the truth." He kissed the side of my head and dropped his hands. Our fingers found each other and we made our way back inside through the crowd.

A group of guardians stood to the right in a small room and motioned for us to come in. "What's up?" I asked.

Among the group was head of Royal Court Guard, Hans. He was a middle-aged man who always rubbed me the wrong way. During the whole, "Rose killed the queen" thing, he'd been the guardian doing all of the work that kept me an outlaw.

"We're trying to figure out watch for the reception," he said.

"Didn't you have the shifts figured out weeks ago?" I asked.

"We did, but some last minute changes are making things difficult."

Last minute changes? Guardians were trained to be on-time and reliable. What could have changed so last minute when dealing with a group like us? Reading my mind like he always did, Dimitri asked "What kind of changes?"

Hans looked uncomfortable and hesitated a moment. "Well, someone sort of… er, got pregnant. So we had to issue maternity leave."

"Got pregnant?" I blurted out. "That isn't something you sort of just… do. It's somewhat of a planned thing. Right?"

My eyes moved to the faces around me and saw a mixture of amusement, discomfort, and confusion.

"Yeah well, we didn't ask questions. What we need to focus on now is fixing this gap."

"I can take it," said Dimitri. His face was calm but I guessed he was as confused as I was.

"No." That response came from Eric, a guardian only a few years older than me who had been transferred from Romania last month. "You're part of the wedding party," he said in an accent. "You'll have to sit at the front and take place there."

Dimitri's expression was calm. "I could help near the end, after dinner has been served." A smile came to my lips. What Dimitri was really thinking was, "Idiot. It's just eating at a fancy table and dancing. Protection is more important." Of course, I didn't share that with anyone.

"No, don't worry," Hans said. "Hathaway, your mother is here. Do you think Lord Szelzky would mind if we borrowed her?"

"I think so. I'll find her and ask."

"Thanks," he nodded.

With that, Dimitri and I left the room to find my mother. She wasn't hard to spot. Standing at only five feet with short, auburn curls, my mom waited quietly behind Lord Szelzky and his Moroi daughter, a focused look on her face.

I approached the royal man and put on my best smile. "Hello Lord Szelzky. Could I speak to my mom?"

He nodded in approval and my smile widened. I took her arm and led her to a quiet spot underneath a staircase.

"What's this about?" My mother still wore her guarded expression, but I sensed worry in her voice. It wasn't often that Rose Hathaway sought out Janine Hathaway.

"I need a favor. The guards are somehow short for the reception, and if they can't find a replacement Dimitri will have to stand in." I didn't mention why they were short because honestly, it still confused me.

"Why can't he stand in?"

"The other guardians didn't want to take him away from the festivities. Do you think Lord Szelzky would mind? He'll still be well-guarded without you."

She thought for a few moments and then nodded and walked away.

"Wait!" I started to follow her when she waved a hand and dismissed me. I met with Dimitri's eyes and shrugged my shoulders. Who knew what my mother was going to do? I sure didn't.

The next hour went by quick enough. It was filled with chatting royals and finger foods. Dimitri and I found a quiet corner where we snacked and talked. Many Moroi passed us, completely oblivious to anything that wasn't dripping with money and a good name. Some stopped to smile and say hello, and a select few gave us hugs and actually made conversation. One of those was Daniela Ivashkov, mother of my ex-boyfriend, Adrian Ivashkov.

"Rose! It's so nice to see you." The slender Moroi royal was wearing a pale blue gown that looked like it was made out of cloud fluff and magic. It took every ounce of my self-control not to grab a section and rub it between my fingers. Once I got past the perfect fabric, I let the situation hit me. Why was she talking to me? I had broken her son's heart only months ago, and even though I had it on good authority that he and my Alchemist friend Sydney Sage were hitting it off, you just didn't make small talk with an ex-boyfriends mom. You also didn't grab folds of their dress and rub it all over your body.

"Um, hi Lady Ivashkov. It's nice to see you, too." We hugged awkwardly and I forced myself to make eye contact.

"You look absolutely stunning, Rose. And please, call me Daniela." Her smile was friendly… too friendly.

"Thanks. You look great, too. What's your dress made out of?" My inner child really wanted to know where I could get cloud fluff and magic, too.

"I really don't know," she laughed. "I just put on whatever color I feel like wearing that day." Okay, adding a fake laugh into the mix of creepy smile and cloud magic was just too much for me. My self-control slipped and I said exactly what I shouldn't have.

"Lady Iv-er, Daniela, why are you talking to me? I'm pretty sure I don't get spoken fondly of at your house." Immediately after saying it I felt stupid. Whatever. There was no going back. I looked her in the eyes and waited for her response.

The hurt expression on her face made me feel even worse. "Rose, you can't think that I would be so petty as to not speak to you?" Actually, I did.

"Well, no, I guess not." I lied.

"After everything that you and Queen Vasilisa have been through, and after everything Adrian has been through, I really feel it's best to all just stay friends. Besides, you and Guardian Belikov make a lovely couple." Her smile returned on the last part, and that was when it hit me.

Adrian was a royal Moroi, I was a dhampir. Sure, flings between our races happened all the time, but settling down and making a life of things didn't. Daniela Ivashkov knew her son very well, so that meant that she knew how he felt about me. Adrian had every intention of settling down with me, which meant Daniela had every intention of being embarrassed and ashamed about it for the rest of her life. Saying that Dimitri and I made a wonderful couple was just her "nice" way of saying, "You're not good enough for my son, dear."

That put me in a bad mood. A _really_ bad mood. Dimitri, knowing me all-too-well, sensed that and chimed in before I could share my jolly attitude. "Thank you, Lady Ivashkov. Did you enjoy the ceremony?" His voice was professional and kind, completely opposite of what mine would have been if I'd have spoken.

They made small talk for a few moments while I reeled over everything in my head. When Dimitri had been restored and rejected me, I tried my hardest to put my all into Adrian and I's relationship. It wasn't easy and to be honest, I could have tried harder. In the end though, Adrian wanted me to be strong for him in all the wrong ways. Our last conversation had been a sad one, one where he told me just how badly I'd broken his heart. When I'd learned of him and Sydney (courtesy of Eddie's every-watchful eye,) I was happy for them. That happiness was much harder to remember as I glared at Lady Ivashkov.

_I am too good enough,_ I thought. _Your son plays the helpless victim and he's just angry that I called him out on it. Besides, you'd take me over his newest choice. How are you going to cover up a human, huh? What lame excuse are you going to make? Just let him live his life. Not everything is a parade of royals, or at least it shouldn't be. _

My thoughts were interrupted by Dimitri's lips on my ear. "Rose, where are you?"

"Sorry," I murmured. I saw a bare space where Lady Ivashkov had been and relief flooded through me. Looking up at him I said, "Did you catch her wicked dig at me? She doesn't think I'm good enough for Adrian. He probably didn't even tell her that I was the one who broke it off."

After I said it, I realized how bizarre things had gotten in the last five minutes. First I was confronting my ex's mom, and now I was talking about my ex to my current boyfriend. What was wrong with me?

"Yes, I did notice that. Are you unhappy with your current choice?"

That snapped me out of whatever love-crazed thought I was on. I looked deeper into his eyes and didn't hesitate when I said "Not at all. In fact, I'm the happiest I've ever been in my entire life."

That brought a smile to his lips and his hand found mine again. "Good. Now, don't worry about Lady Ivashkov. The reception is going to start any moment. You should go find Lissa."

"Right." I took his advice and forced all thoughts of Daniela and Adrian away. Before I left, I laid a kiss on his cheek. I gave one last glance at that tux and the way it made his muscles look. "Have I told you yet that you look drop-dead handsome in that? Who knows, I might marry you sooner if this is what I have to look forward to."

In Australia lives one of the rarest things in the world, the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat. I'd been thinking for a long time that I should submit some kind of report to all the smart scientists telling them that, really, the rarest thing in the world was catching Dimitri Belikov off guard. But, the mention of marrying him sooner did the trick. I laughed at the shocked look on his face but turned away before he could say anything. We probably wouldn't get to talk much the rest of the night and I figured that was a good topic to leave him on.

I made my way upstairs and through doors to Lissa's suite. She was sitting near the mirror while a dhampir woman pulled her blond curls into an artfully messy bun.

"Well your majesty, I have to be honest with you. That was the most romantic wedding I've ever been to. And seeing that it's only the second one, you're definitely ahead of the curve."

She gave me a bright smile but turned pensive when she asked, "Was it too much? I didn't want to drag it on, but I also didn't want the entire thing to be in Russian and Romanian. I love tradition, but it gets so exhausting."

"No need to worry, Liss. It was really beautiful." The tone of my voice put her at ease and she sighed in contentment.

We shared more smiles and I helped finish getting her ready. The dress she chose to wear for the reception was almost identical to the ceremony one, but with cap sleeves and minus the train. It flowed out more at her hips to give her room to move and dance. When her hair was done, she stood and spun a few times. As I watched I felt tears come to my eyes. I wiped them away quickly, but not before she saw.

A look of concern lit her face as she hugged me. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," I smiled. "Really. I'm not sad. I'm actually happy. It's amazing, you're amazing. After everything… "I faltered, thinking back on the previous years of struggle and heart ache. "After everything we've been through, it feels too good to be true. At the same time though, I couldn't be happier for you. There aren't two people more deserving of this than you and Christian."

When she finally spoke, it was quiet and gentle. "Wrong. I can think of two people who deserve this even more. I'm happy for you, too. Even though you aren't married, I see the way you look at each other. We both made out with our prince charming."

We laughed at the last part and hugged one more time. It was such a brief, sweet moment, but it filled me with joy. Lissa was right; we both came out of our struggles with the man of our dreams. If I had to do it all over again for Dimitri, I would. I knew she would do it for Christian, too. I couldn't help but notice the mention of Dimitri and me getting married, though. It made me a little nervous.

Our moment was cut-short when Anna bustled in to us. I was getting tired of her doing that.

"Your majesty, King Dragomir is waiting outside." We both smiled at his new title.

That brought a question to my mind though. "Hey, why isn't Christian in here getting ready with you?"

Lissa nodded to Anna before answering me. "We did get mostly ready together, but I told him to go out when we started on my hair. Element of surprise, you know?"

I nodded in agreement and gave her one last hug. "I'll wait for you with the others."

On my way back to the reception hall, I passed Christian in the small corridor outside Liss's room. "Hey there, your majesty." I dramatically bowed to him and we both laughed.

"You're looking rather… nice, today." His joking toned remained and I got all sorts of excited. Bantering with Christian was one of my life's many joys.

"What was that? Lord Ozera gave me a compliment? I'm shocked. Did we get that on tape?"

He grinned. "Hey, watch it. I've got a new title, haven't you heard?"

"Oh right. Sorry, your majesty," I said in a posh, British accent.

"You know, I'm glad you'll be sticking around. Everyone else is going to have to be nice to me now, but I can always count on you, Rose. If I'm ever feeling too happy I'll come find you so you can bring me back down to earth."

I laughed and said, "Yeah, I'll always be here to tell you how much you suck and how much I hate you."

He started to say something when Lissa's double doors opened and out walked the queen. "Aw man!" I mocked. "We were just getting to the good part."

"Mhm," agreed Christian. "Rose was just about to yield to my wit. You'll just have to wait till next time, Hathaway. Come prepared."

"That I will," I winked.

Lissa looked between the two of us and just rolled her eyes. She was smiling, though. Even she couldn't ignore the fact that her husband (woah, Liss is married,) and best friend were hilarious together.

"Your highness," Christian said as he pulled her to him. Their lips locked in a deep kiss, which doubled as my cue to leave. I remembered the days when we were bonded and I got pulled into moments of intense emotion, like that kiss. Chills ran over me as I thought of how grateful I was that their sex life was no longer my problem.

I found my way to the doors outside the reception hall where Anna, Jill and Dimitri stood. _Today has had a lot of walking-through-fancy-door-ways, _I thought.

"Oh there you are!" Anna fluttered over to me and pulled me into position behind Dimitri and Jill. She held a clipboard and had a black earpiece tucked in her right ear. "You'll go in the same way you did for the ceremony. Guardian Belikov, I want you to spin Princess Jill after about five or six steps." Dimitri nodded and looked down at Jill expectantly.

"I… I'm not very graceful," she muttered.

Dimitri put on a warm smile and looked her in the eyes. "Don't worry. I won't let you fall. Hold onto my hand tight and just let me lead you." A memory of Dimitri talking with his younger sister Viktoria flashed in my head. In many ways, he was treating Jill as kindly as he would his own family.

I touched Jill's arm and lowered my voice to whisper in her ear, "I speak from experience. He is _very _good at leading." I sealed the deal with a wink that sent Jill into giggles. Dimitri's face showed that he'd heard what I said. I laughed at the scandalized expression and gave him a peck. "No worries, comrade. I believe in you."

A commotion behind me turned out to be Christian and Lissa. It was time to go. Before the doors opened I found Anna's eyes and asked, "What am I supposed to do?"

"Something original, but not too flashy."

Well that was helpful—not.

"Hey, I dare you to do a front handspring." The voice belonged Christian.

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah. It'd generate a lot of excitement, especially in that dress."

I looked to Lissa and she just shrugged. Before I could say anything, Anna let out a shocked gasp. "You will do no such thing! It's bad enough we have dhampirs in the wedding party."

The last part was something I wasn't supposed to hear, or at least, I assumed I wasn't supposed to hear. She had lowered her voice but most likely wasn't aware that dhampirs had excellent senses. The looks on Christian and Lissa's faces gave away nothing; they hadn't heard. Dimitri's was different, however. His eyes burned, and I knew exactly what he was feeling.

"Okay," whispered Anna as the doors began to open. "Let's go!"

I watched as Dimitri led Jill into the giant room, and after five steps, I watched him spin her around. The young Moroi had gangly limbs but Dimitri was so strong. He kept her hand tight in his and didn't let her spin too far away from him. The crowd cheered as they moved past and sat at the long table. It was my turn now.

The walkway was wide with plush, gold carpet. It was perfect. Seven steps into the room, I took one extra-large step, raised my hands above my head (and somehow managed to toss my bouquet to a Moroi woman standing at the nearest table) and did not one, not two, but three front handsprings. The crowd erupted in cheers, everyone except for Anna, whose blood probably went cold when she saw the look I shot her. I had a feeling she knew that I'd heard her.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter 2

Okay, _most _of the crowd erupted in cheers. Some Moroi weren't too pleased with my display and made sure I knew by the look of disgust on their faces. It didn't bother me though. I'd gotten my point across; Anna knew what she did wrong. Dimitri winked at me as I passed him and took my spot at the banquet table. After the crowd settled we stood and watched the royal entrance, which was much more… formal. Everyone listened as they entered and some guy from the Tarus family announced "King and Queen Vasilisa Dragomir," in English, Russian, and Romanian.

When we were motioned to sit, Christian brought Lissa with him to the dance floor and started their first dance. It was all part of yet another royal tradition; they'd been going to lessons for weeks. I smiled mischievously, knowing that something much more festive was coming up next.

I hadn't noticed until now (probably because I'd spent most of my time staring at Lissa and Dimitri,) but Christian looked really handsome. He wore a tux like Dimitri, but instead of a cream vest, he was sporting the Dragomir green. His hair had been cut and styled perfectly, and those blue eyes that Lissa loved so much were the brightest and happiest that I'd ever seen them. The two of them together were so luminous. Again I wished I could see auras.

When I took my eyes off of the happy couple and actually looked at my surroundings, I gasped. Between my show of gymnastics and the fancy dance, I hadn't taken much notice to the room. Now that I was looking, I could see that every detail that Lissa had so tediously planned in had worked out. Most royal occasions were gaudy just for the sake of gaudiness. They had money and always seemed to overdo it. That was something Lissa had refused to do though, and it showed in the tasteful, elegant décor. Round tables covered in gold and cream linen surrounded the dance floor. Center pieces were tall, thin vases that had Bells of Ireland and Queen Anne's Lace dripping over the sides. Dishes were cream with gilt, floral edging, and the lights were dimmed to a warm gold. Pale jade tapestries were hung on the ceiling in fancy lacework with twinkling lights mixed in. It gave the room a seriously enchanted feeling. The long table that the wedding party sat at was covered in a green and gold tablecloth and sat on a platform three steps higher than the rest of the room. Some monarchs were known to have made theirs seven or eight steps high, but Lissa had refused. She wanted her people to know that she was pleased they were there celebrating with her. The mixing of greens and gold's showed Dragomir strength and made it hard to believe that there were only two of them.

My gawking got interrupted when I heard the scratching sound of a record. That was my cue. Without hesitation, Lissa pushed Christian aside and I joined her on the dance floor. I'd slipped the gold heels off earlier and watched as she gracefully tossed hers aside before our cue hit. It was time to boogie.

Like I said, Lissa didn't have much family (and was still working with Jill), so that meant no father-daughter dance. A lot of girls would have let that stop them, but not Lissa and me. We took matters into our own hands and choreographed the worst group dances all into one, giant fiasco of movement. The music started as a pretty piano and violin duet. I stood on my tiptoes and put on a tough face (trying to look manly, you know) as I spun her around and dipped her. Laughter from the audience and Lissa made it really hard to keep a stern face, though. We kept that up for a while and the audience loved it. They sat back and waited for the song to end, thinking that was all we were going to do. It wasn't.

The DJ did another scratch and "Cupid Shuffle" blared over the speakers as I spun Lissa out and started our dance. For the next five minutes, we made history. We shuffled and booty-bumped, and I even got her to wobble. My years of battle training made dancing pretty easy, so I did well, but poor, awkward, gangly Lissa… bless her heart. She tried. It was more fun than anything, and when we were done, most of the audience went wild. I say 'most' begrudgingly, because honestly, watching people do funny dances is entertaining, but leave it to the royal Moroi to make it a big deal. This kind of thing didn't even happen at royal weddings. Doing it at a _queen's_ wedding was more than just scandalous. Many would view it as insulting, and I was sure some prissy royal would write a letter or something. It didn't matter though, because over 90% of Moroi in that room were standing and cheering, and 100% of dhampirs (yes, _every single guardian_) were joining them.

"Do it again!" one royal guy shouted. "We loved it!" came from a group of our classmates at St. Vladimir's, and "Bravo! Bravo!" came from none other than Hans-the-oh-so-stuffy-guardian, himself. It was amazing. I looked at Lissa and yelled over the crowd, "I think we just found a way to settle every political debate in the future."

She laughed as we took one more bow before heading off the dance floor and back to our table. I was out of breath when I sat down and looked for Dimitri's face. A full, real, no-holding-back-his-sexy-charm, Dimitri smile, is what I found. I smiled back and gave him an air fist-bump.

The room settled down just in time for dinner to be served. By that time I'd caught my breath and slipped my heels back on. Another older-than-dirt tradition stated that Lissa needed to be the first one to drink, so we waited as a pitcher of red wine was walked up to the table with a server. A young and pretty Moroi girl poured the drink in a large, jewel-encrusted goblet. After she'd taken a sip, Liss rose the cup above her head and nodded to the crowd in a symbol of "Let the party commence."

And party we did.

Well, not _that _kind of party. I mean really, how crazy could a room full of mostly-royal Moroi and incredibly alert guardians get? Even with alcohol involved, we weren't insane. We were excited, though. Lissa was the first queen to be married in over 70 years and people wanted to make a good time of it. Plus, the love between Lissa and Christian was palpable. There was an honest to goodness need to celebrate them.

That need translated well into things like a live DJ that took requests and kept the dance floor bustling. Feeders sat off to the side in a discrete room, ready to assist anyone needing a pick me up. I'd counted at least five photographers running around snapping pictures of the happy guests, and royals who hadn't talked in years were mingling lightly with each other. Delicious foods were brought around on serving trays for dhampirs and the occasional Moroi, and to my sheer delight, a table in the right corner held four chocolate fountains and a buffet of dipping-foods on it.

During one of my many trips to the quad of chocolate bliss, I saw my mom standing near the feeding room entrance (how nice of Anna to place the chocolate near the blood. I'd have to add that to my list of things to thank her for) and walked up to her.

"Thanks for covering for Dimitri," I smiled.

She nodded sharply and stared on. Janine Hathaway, the ever-watchful guardian.

"Are you having a good time?"

"Rose, I'm standing by the feeding room that just happens to be right next to warm, dripping chocolate that I can't have. How much fun is there to be had?" Her tone was hard to make out over the music and talking, but I was guessing she wasn't too pleased.

"Why'd you cover for him then? You didn't have to. I was just asking."

"I did it because I need a favor of you."

That surprised me. "Oh?"

"Yes. It's something I've thought a lot about and as your mother, I feel I have the right to discuss it with you. I thought that if I helped you out, you'd at least consider it."

The way she said "mother" made my anger spike. It was no secret to anyone that she and I weren't BFF's. My mom had left me to be raised by the Academy and in time, Lissa's family. I understood why, but it didn't change the fact that she'd been essentially nonexistent in my life. Our relationship didn't change until after I'd killed two Strigoi in Seattle and watched my friend Mason die. She was there on the plane ride home and had offered comfort to me. Even now though, more than a year after Seattle, I didn't feel like I could run into her arms and call her momma.

My thoughts were interrupted when she piped in with her next sentence. "I feel like you should consider marrying Dimitri."

Earlier, when I'd taken Dimitri by surprise, (ironically that conversation was about marriage, too) I'd felt like a boss. The equivalent of catching Dimitri Belikov off guard was making Rose Hathaway speechless. My own mother had just done the deed.

I stared in astonishment for a solid minute. When I found my voice, I sounded like a little girl. "W-wait. What?"

"You heard exactly what I said."

"Yeah, I did. And is that your final answer? Are you sure that's what you said? Because last time I checked, you were Janine Hathaway, the kick butt guardian who fully supported women taking their rightful place in front of Moroi, protecting and defending. They come first, remember?" I felt like I was reading a paragraph out of the "Guarding: An Essential Guide to Guardianship" manual.

"I never said anything about leaving your post with Lissa. That would just be foolish." Her eyes were still glued on the crowd, which ticked me off. I wanted her to look at me while she told me how to live my life.

"Oh right, right. Leaving my post would be foolish, but marrying a fellow guardian, something that is _never done, _is totally logical. Mom, are you feeling okay?"

She finally turned her head to me and gave me a beautiful glare. "Listen Rose. You and Dimitri are obviously exclusive. I see no reason why marrying him would change your actual relationship. It would just be put into writing and acknowledged by the law. Plus, you and Dimitri are becoming household names."

I was about to lecture her on my total apathy for the law when, for the second time, she rendered me speechless. "A household name?" I asked a moment later. "What the heck does that mean? We aren't cleaning supplies."

"No, but you are two of the most successful, and famous, guardians in the world. If your last year at St. Vladimir's wasn't enough, then restoring him, clearing your name, and killing the Blood King was. If you got married you'd show a sense of unity among guardians. In fact, guardians and Moroi alike have been talking about it. I've heard a lot of positive things."

"Thanks for the recap of my life. But we didn't do any of those things to become famous." A dark mood settled over me then. Remembering back on everything she said made the current party a little less alluring.

"I know that," she said sharply. "I also know that he loves you very much, and you love him."

"Yeah yeah. Did you say guardians _and_ Moroi were talking about us?" Her previous comment pushed its way through my gloomy mood and surfaced. _That would explain Daniela's weird, random comment about Dimitri and me. _

"Yes. It's become a topic of discussion." Her voice took on a fierce, commanding tone. You're right, it's very rare, but so is magically being bonded to your best friend, taking away the darkness from a unique and powerful element, and returning your boyfriend from an undead state to a living one. Rose, your entire life is a rarity."

With that, she left me speechless for the third time, and stomped off. A few seconds later she was relieved by a guy I'd never seen before. I was willing to bet he didn't want to talk about my love life and crazy mother, so I grabbed my strawberries and left.

I was mulling it all over in my head on the walk back to the banquet table when I heard Anna's voice on the speakers.

"Excuse me. Ladies and gentlemen, we'd now like to invite Guardian Rose Hathaway, best friend of the bride, and maid of honor, to share the first toast of the evening."

Clapping followed as Anna gestured grandly to me. I set the strawberries down (reluctantly) and made my way to in front of the DJ's table where the microphone stood. I added another thing to the list of thank you's to Anna: _thanks for interrupting not only my chocolate-covered-strawberry eating, but also the insane twist of events that lead my mother to believe in marriage. _

I pushed the entire conversation to the back of my mind and focused on my new task. When Lissa reminded me last week that I'd have to give a toast, I thought nothing of it. I'd never been scared to talk to people and was usually getting myself in trouble for saying too much. But standing there now, breathing into the mic, staring at at least 2,000 people, and wearing a dress that made me feel like a sea-creature, I suddenly thought everything of it. I had to remind myself that this was Lissa's day. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted her to know that I was happy for her and Christian and that I loved her. With a lot of concentration and a comforting smile from Dimitri, I closed my eyes and swallowed.

"Well…" I said, surprised at how loud my voice was, considering that I felt like puking. "I think I speak for the Queen when I say, thanks for sticking around after that dance." Laughter filled the room and my nerves lessened. _You can do this, Rose. This is for Lissa. It's always been for Lissa. _

"When I met Queen Vasilisa, we were in kindergarten. Back then she had crooked teeth and looked at her feet a lot when she talked." Laughter filled the room again. "It was a pretty fast friendship though, probably because she was scared I'd beat her up if she didn't stick around." More laughter. "As we got older and watched our classmates change friends and move away, we stayed close." A smile crept into my voice as I said, "Years have passed and here we are, two 19-year-old best friends with straight teeth and great posture." _Man,_ I thought. _I should have been a comedian. _

I kept my voice loud but looked away from the crowd and spoke to her. "We were each other's constants. I consider her more of a sister than anything else." I turned to the crowd again and swallowed back traitorous tears. Jeez, I was an emotional mess today. One minute Jay Leno, the next a silly girl. "Most of you know that we were psychically bonded for almost four years. That bond added and extra level of closeness to our relationship. I was able to better-protect her because I always knew where she was and what she was doing, but it made things harder, too. A lot of things." My voice got quieter at the end and I looked down. I didn't want to mention all of those things right now, both because it would take hours and because it was painful.

I composed myself and put my eyes back on the audience. "It also made me love her more… Ladies and gentlemen, I've been inside your queen's heart and mind and what I have to say of it is this: she's gold. I've seen her light and felt her love. She astounds me." My voice was loud now and I somehow felt more eyes on me than before. "But do you know what makes Vasilisa truly great? She's always been like that. I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't put someone else's needs above her own. We can all sit tight that Christian Ozera, our new king, is someone who puts Lissa's needs before his own. Someone as selfless as her is 100% deserving of that kind of love.

"When her family died, I watched a part of her die too, and it broke my heart. I loved the Dragomir's like my own family, but the one I loved most was still alive. I worried for her for a long, long time. It was a responsibility I'd taken on myself, so you can imagine my trepidation when Ozera came along and laid the moves on her." While the crowd laughed I applauded myself for using the word "trepidation" correctly.

"He makes her happy, though. So, so happy. And like I said, he takes almost as good of care of her as I do. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if he passed my tests, then he should pass everyone else's. I know that if Prince and Princess Dragomir were still here, they would bless this marriage. They'd welcome Christian in with open arms and make him as comfortable in their family as possible.

"It hasn't been a very… normal road for Lissa and me." My mother's earlier words about my life being a rarity flashed into my mind. Thinking about it all really made me see that she was right. We'd been through so much more than typical teenage drama. How had we survived it all? "Love," I said finally. It was meant to only be a thought, but apparently my brain decided otherwise. "Love is how we got through all of the "un-normal" stuff," I continued. "Our love for each other, our love for our families, and our love for our people. So today we should not only celebrate these two, but love itself. It's a crazy thing, but it's got powers that no one can completely master. Here's to you, King and Queen Dragomir. May your years be full of love, and" (I couldn't resist,) "may Christian's awful jokes someday, maybe far, far away, get better."

"Cheers," the audience laughed.

My sigh of relief came as I caught Lissa's eye and saw her wiping away tears. "Thank you," she mouthed. I smiled back and nodded.

Just as I handed the mic over and started back in on my strawberries again, I was interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. "Guardian Hathaway, may I have this dance?"

His familiar accented words washed over me and warmed my core. "Why yes," I smiled. It was the smile that, with other men I'd had to fake, but never with him.

As he spun me out onto the floor, I heard nearby Moroi gasp and whisper. Something about it made me feel like whatever they were saying wasn't the usual Moroi gossip. I could see in their faces that watching us together was a form of entertainment. We were like rare animals in an exhibit.

My lapse in attention would have been unnoticeable to anyone else but Dimitri. In that insane way we had of guessing each other's thoughts, he said, "I know. They look at us, they talk about us. No matter what we do Rose, we're always going to be a topic of discussion." His voice was solemn, like he'd accepted it.

"Yeah," I sighed. "It was easier when we got talked about because I got away with another crazy scheme and you had to drag me away. This love stuff is totally new territory for me." I looked into his soft eyes and waited for him to speak.

We were standing close as he led us around the dance floor. Even at 6'7", he was graceful enough to make our height difference look like no big deal. The heels helped, but I was still a good eight inches shorter.

Another graceful spin brought us close again and he replied. "First of all, you getting away with crazy things always made people mad. It was up to Lissa and me to do damage control. Secondly, if I recall correctly, me dragging you away usually led to good things for us." His voice got low and husky on the last part. I knew what he was talking about because it'd happened more than once. The cabin in the woods, the hotel room after Victor…

"Well sure," I said trying to sound like his words hadn't made my blood boil and heart flutter. "But as _I _recall, I kicked a lot of butt and followed a lot of leads that everyone else thought were crazy."

He raised an eyebrow. "In most situations, seeing ghosts is considered insane."

"Yeah but like my mom said, nothing we've ever done has been regular. Why are-"I stopped mid-sentence, realizing I'd let slip my mother's comment.

"Is that what you two were talking about earlier? Whatever she said surprised you."

"Um yeah, it was a different conversation than we usually have." I looked away quickly, trying desperately to avoid any questions. It was silly of me. He wouldn't be fooled.

"Different…?"

"Different."

"Rose."

"What? Look, let's just enjoy our dance. Why don't you dip me and then we can kiss, give 'em a real good show." I really did want to enjoy our dance together. The rest of the night was going to be hectic and we probably wouldn't get to talk much.

"Rose-logic. I swear, coming from anyone else it would just seem crazy. You somehow make it believable, though. The next time we're alone you're talking. Got it?" His voice was firm but full of love.

"Got it," I smiled. After a few seconds of smiling at him I remembered what I'd said. "Hey, I was serious about the dipping thing. These people deserve it. Maybe we'll give one of the really old ones a heart attack!"

I only heard him laughing for a second because before I could do anything to prepare myself, he leaned me back in a deeply and perfectly arched dip. His strong arms held me up almost effortlessly and when he pulled me back to him, encircled my waist to lift me up for a kiss. More gasps from the crowd (and hopefully a heart attack or two) told us that our show had worked.

"Nice job, comrade," I said breathlessly when our lips parted.

"Anything for you, Roza." Our gazed burned for a few moments longer, but then the music stopped and Anna announced that the Liss was going to throw the bouquet.

"Anna!" I groaned. She was seriously just ruining my night.

Dimitri's lips danced with a smile, but his eyes were still on fire. "I'll see you later tonight, miss." He pushed my long hair behind my ear and kissed the bare part of my neck he'd exposed. "Be sure to bring some of those insane ideas with you. I'd like to discuss them more."

I had to swallow hard, but still somehow managed to say, "Yeah, well, you be sure to bring some Zen-life lesson to harsh my mellow."

His smile was the only answer I needed.

I made my way through the swarm of girls that had appeared out of thin air as soon as Anna said "bouquet," to stand next to Lissa. I'd had every intention of just waiting there and then escorting her out, but her gesture for me to lean in and talk told me otherwise. The queen wanted me to stand in with the crazy royals and try to catch it.

"Liss, no way!"

"Rose, please?" Her eyes were big and I swear, I saw her lip pout.

"No. No way! Liss stop looking at me like that! I don't-"a familiar wave of warmth ran over me. "Vasilisa Dragomir, don't you dare use compulsion on me!"

She laughed. "It was only a little." Her face sobered as she pleaded. "For me, please do this?"

"Ugh," I groaned. "You make my life difficult."

The smile she gave me looked like one of an Olympic gold medalist. "Thank you!"

I stomped over to the group of girls and wedged my way between a blue-eyed Badica and a seriously crazy-haired Ivashkov. Her red curls were so captivating that I was staring at them when Lissa threw the bouquet. Since my gaze wasn't directly on it, and because I was trained to react quickly to things in my periphery, I automatically reached my hand out and clutched whatever was flying towards me. If I hadn't have stood next to psycho-hair lady, I would have been paying attention, and I wouldn't have caught the dang thing. I seriously considered talking to her about her hair when I heard the crowd laugh and whistle. I even heard Dimitri's name mixed in a few times. Seconds later, Lissa came over laughing. The glare I gave her could have brought on the plague.

"You are unbelievable!" I whispered. She ignored my comment and, laughingly, hugged me. I kept my arms at my side at first, but finally gave in when she clutched tighter.

"Just think," she said into my hair, "you could have a summer wedding! We could do it in Baia. I would take care of everything, Rose. You honestly wouldn't have to lift a finger." She pulled back and met her excited jade eyes with my Rose Hathaway scowl.

"What _is it_ with everyone today? Just because you got married does not mean I have to."

"Is that what you think?" A look of hurt crossed her beautiful features and instantly made me feel guilty.

"No, it's not like that. Don't feel bad. Listen, I'll tell you all about it later, I promise." I gave her a winning smile and sighed in relief when she smiled in return.

"Sorry to interrupt your wedding plans Rose, but I'd like to take my wife with me now." I glared at the new arrival to our conversation.

"Thanks a lot, Liss," I grumbled. "Who didn't you guys talk to about this illusive wedding you're planning?"

She said something, or at least, I think she said something. I didn't hear anything though, because something, well some_one_ behind Christian pulled my attention away. I hadn't seen him in almost a year, but I'd know his face anywhere. He was walking away from me, through a group of royals, heading for the doors. _No! _I thought. _He can't get to the doors._

In one quick move I pulled Lissa and Christian behind me. The guardians surrounding me recognized it immediately and joined me in readiness. Within seconds, the black-jacketed figures standing post at the rooms' perimeter were all on alert. The doors were being closed and thankfully the guardians that stood near them were refusing the royals asking to leave. But… wait. Looking over the mild chaos in the room I saw a man holding the gaze of a Guardian. They were on the far left of the room and the man talking was in a navy suit. The door opened, and the guardian let him out.

"No!" I shouted. My legs carried me as fast as they could in heels to the door. In a few minutes, I'd feel really bad about the royals I'd knocked over on my way there.

"Who did you let out?" I screamed to the guardian when I arrived.

The look of confusion on his face told me he thought I was crazy.

I repeated myself in a calmer tone. "That man you let out, who was it? What did he look like?" I tried pushing my way through the door, but man these guys were thorough. The doors were locked.

"Guardian Hathaway, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't let anyone out."

I could see it in his eyes. He wasn't lying. He'd had compulsion used on him. Turning around to face the room again, I saw royals clumping together and guardians staring at me in fierce confusion. None of them had left their posts, but I knew that most of them wanted to. I leaned over to the guardian closest to me and took his mouthpiece from him.

In a low voice, I held the small black thing to my lips and told them who I'd seen. "Robert Doru is here."


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter 3

"Hathaway, you can't seriously expect me to believe that Robert Doru is a threat," Hans said. We were standing on the giant steps outside the Reception Hall, glaring at each other. Our voices weren't loud, but the Moroi that stood around us didn't need to hear us because they could _see _us. Hans was one step below me, (which only made us eye-level) arms crossed over his chest, glaring impressively. My hands were on my hips and I knew my scowl was equally as impressive.

"Actually, I can."

"Well sorry, but on our list of threats, Robert Doru is pretty far down. Why is it so hard to believe that he's at court just for the wedding?"

"I told you," I growled. "He's the most powerful spirit user we know! He restored Sonya Carp and is the reason we knew how to restore Dimitri. He can do damage, Hans. Leaving him alone to roam around the Court is an insane threat." I didn't bother mentioning the whole, "and I killed his brother, so he wouldn't be here for the wedding, he'd be here to kill me," thing. Imagining him creeping about sent chills down my spine. I couldn't risk him being in the same room as Lissa ever again.

"Excuse me if that doesn't scare me. Spirit is an unruly element that we know very little about. Queen Vasilisa has talents, no one doubts that. But she is one of only four spirit users that we acknowledge."

I didn't bother mentioning Avery, Oksana, or St. Vladimir, or the fact that I'd been heavily involved with the magic for almost five years. Hans didn't realize he was talking to one of the only people still alive that knew more about spirit than many spirit users knew. "Screw acknowledgement!" I threw my hands up and ignored how loud I'd gotten. "Something bad is going to happen because of this, Hans. Let me take Lissa and walk the grounds. She'll be able to sense him through the charms he has on." I let some desperation sneak into my words in hopes that he'd take me seriously.

It didn't work. "On her wedding night? Yes. That's exactly what the Queen wants to do." His sarcasm was actually impressive.

"I know what she _doesn't_ want to do, and that's get tortured by a crazy old man, which is what Robert will do if he finds her."

"No. That's my final word. Now, go find her and get on that plane. You have 30 minutes." He turned around, dismissed the lingering Moroi, and went back inside.

"Unbelievable," I muttered.

I was just about to go after him when Jill, Lissa's half-sister, touched my arm. "Rose, is everything okay?"

A wave of guilt washed over me as I realized I hadn't given her any thought the entire night. Eight months ago when my name was cleared and my life was made perfect (almost), Jill Mastrano's life got totally flipped upside down and made, well, un-perfect. She became Princess to a family she hadn't ever known and taken from the family she'd grown up with. Lissa resented her because in Jill she saw her dad cheating on her mom. Jill saw in Lissa someone who only needed her for a vote. There was no connection, let alone sisterly love, which meant Jill got swept under the rug a lot. Even though they'd had eight months to get used to each other, nothing was different. When we found out about the illegitimate Dragomir, we were more preoccupied with clearing my name and kind of forgot to take into account the shattering of lives it would bring.

I bit my lip against the guilt. "Yeah, Jill. Just stupid guardian stuff." The first part was a lie. The second part was Hans.

"Can I help at all?"

Her voice was kind and I smiled despite myself. "Yes. You can stop worrying and let me take you back into the party."

I got a winning grin in return and took that as a yes. We started back inside and I made a mental note to talk to Lissa about her later.

We made small talk about the party before I dropped her off and said bye. I started on my way to Lissa but got pulled back by a hand. "Jill?" I asked surprised. "Did I forget something?"

She shook her head and took a deep breath. "Rose, I need an honest answer from you." She met my eyes and I saw a fierceness in them. "Is Robert really back? I… I remember that day, with Victor. Robert snapped when he saw. If Dimitri wouldn't have gotten him out of there, I really don't think you'd be standing here."

Another pang of guilt spread over me as I recalled the day I'd killed Victor Dashkov, Robert's brother. Jill had been their prisoner when we came to rescue her and met in the parking lot. Dimitri assigned me to Victor, who tried to kill me using earth magic. I'd been taking so much darkness from Lissa around then that when I snapped and went after Victor, I snapped hard. The poor old man hadn't stood a chance, and I killed him. I'd forgiven myself, knowing that without the darkness I wouldn't have done it, but Jill was right about Robert. When he saw his brother's lifeless body, he went nuts and tried to bring him back. Seeing that he couldn't do that, coming after me for revenge was the next best option.

I put on a fake smile. "Thanks, Jill. You're right about Robert being dangerous." I was going to leave it at that, but the determined look on her face made me realize that Jill was tougher than I gave her credit for. I stepped closer and said in a low whisper, "If I was you, I'd get back to Palm Springs as soon as possible. He's going to try to get anyone close to me. I know he's here at Court, too. So just stay away for a while, okay?" Saying those words out loud… from the moment I'd seen Robert, I knew they were true. But actually _saying _them gave me a sick feeling. Sickness twisted into rage as I thought, _Good luck, Robert. I won't hesitate to kill you. _

She nodded and hugged me before turning back into the Reception Hall. I found my way to the small sitting room where Lissa waited. Dimitri, posted outside of the door, gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and went in with me.

"He's here, I know what I saw. But Hans doesn't feel he's a threat. Liss, you're going to have to keep your shield up whenever you're around Court, okay? And no wandering. I know that's been okay in the past, but until we know more, I want you to always be with a guard." She nodded, questioning nothing.

"Do you know what he's here for?" asked Christian.

"No idea," I lied. "Whatever it is though, it's not sightseeing.

With that, we left and stared through the maze to Royal Housing. It didn't used to be a maze, in fact, it used to be two buildings over. But, after Tatiana was murdered and I was put in as Lissa's main guard, the security around Court tripled. It wasn't because I had any great ideas really, but because I was persistent enough about her safety to annoy the right people. Things like passwords among guardians, keypads outside of doors, and underground tunnels were now added to what Court guardians were trained for. The only way Lissa could go from building to building was through underground hallways. The walkways were nothing special, white walls, florescent lighting, brown carpet, but they did feel like they belonged to another time.

In the 50's when the royal Court moved here, the tunnels were used to traffic feeders in and out. Back then they didn't have the medicine to hydrate feeders as quickly as we do now, so they would put them in the basement apartments and let them heal for a week or two. I didn't like the thought of casting them out into the basement like pets. Thoughts of crazed humans in hospital gowns, roaming around the dimly lit halls, always gave me an uncomfortable feeling in them.

Since we'd been away at Lehigh for the past seven months, the system I'd help put in place was hard to remember. I managed though, and we weaved in and out of the hallways pretty fast. When we got to their room, Dimitri walked ahead and left us in the parlor while he checked the rest of the room. Usually we didn't do that, but with a crazy spirit user on the loose, I didn't argue. He returned and gave us the OK, and they slipped inside to get changed. Seeing as there was no danger in her room, I plopped down on the couch and took off my shoes.

"Ow," I groaned. There were thick patches of red where the straps had been, and in three or four places the skin was rubbed completely raw. "I knew I should have put them on before tonight."

Dimitri had been standing near the door, tough guardian face on, when he saw my feet. In an instant he was muttering Russian profanities under his breath and sitting next to me. Concern lit his gorgeous features as he asked, "Are you alright?"

"No worries, comrade. I've had much worse." I placed my hand on his cheek and smiled.

He shook his head and knelt down in front of me. Taking a foot into his hands, he surveyed the damage. "You're bleeding, Rose. Why did you pick out such uncomfortable shoes?"

Good question. "Well… they were the cutest."

"Seriously? That's your excuse?" Amusement flickered in his eyes but his mouth stayed hard.

"Yes! I never wear heels anymore. Like, ever. I wanted this pair to be special because, honestly, when am I going to have an excuse to wear them again?" I wasn't convincing him. Right before he opened his mouth to argue, a thought came to mind. "I've seen you wear your duster when it's hot outside. That doesn't stop you." It was pretty lame, but it was still something.

He shook his head again and met my eyes. "Has my coat ever made me bleed? Has it ever given me blisters? Sweat is totally different from blood."

Dang. He got me. "Well it doesn't matter. I should have worn them before tonight, anyways. It's only been a few hours though. I'm glad I took them off before-"

"A few hours?" He interrupted. "Rose, we've been in the Reception Hall for five. The ceremony was almost an hour long, and the cocktail hour was 45 minutes. It's almost daylight. Haven't you felt uncomfortable before now?"

I stared, shocked. "No way? Huh. Not really, but I'm used to ignoring pain." I wasn't boasting- it was the truth.

He nodded. "You've been wearing these all day long. I can't believe you didn't want to take them off until now."

"Man. I'm tough." I said.

"Oh Roza," he laughed. "Yes, you are."

We shared smiles for a minute, but I cut it short. There was more going on besides my bloody feet, and I couldn't ignore it anymore, especially around him. "Dimitri, I know I saw Robert. I know it."

"I believe you. Why do you think he's here?"

"Honestly? Revenge." That was the only explanation with cause. "One of us needs to always be with her, okay?"

He looked grim. "That's what I was afraid of. Okay."

"I'm afraid that Lissa will get caught in the crosshairs," I said quietly. "He can do real damage, and he has nothing to lose. With Victor gone, does he have any more family? I bet he's running himself crazy with spirit until he finds me. Then he'll be too insane to do anything with besides send him to Tarasov."

Dimitri thought on my words for a while before he said anything. When he did, I was reminded of my Zen-life lessons back at St. Vladimir's. "All of that is possible, but neither of us can see the future. All we can do is protect Lissa and stay safe ourselves."

"Thank you, Mr. Miyagi. Let me know when you're ready to kick some-" Lissa's door opened and she and Christian walked out.

I had completely forgotten my feet and hurriedly tried to pull my shoes back on before she saw. I was too late. "What happened to your feet?" she gasped, kneeling beside Dimitri.

"Eh, just the usual guardian stuff."

Dimitri rolled his eyes. "She didn't wear her shoes before tonight."

Lissa looked scandalized. "Rose, you know the rule with heels!"

"I know I know," I barked. " I'm just going to put my shoes on now and we can go."

Her hands cupped my left foot and she closed her eyes. "Liss, no-" I began to say, but it was too late. Spirit flooded through me and in seconds, I was back to normal.

Using the magic came at such a high cost, even the littlest bit like that. "Please Lissa! There's a first aid kit on the plane, I'll be-"

"Shh," she chastised and moved on to my right. "How do you expect to guard me with bloody, blistered feet? Besides," she smiled, "you're going to have to wear them out of here. Now you can without wincing every step." Another second passed and my right foot was better. "There," she said triumphantly. "Good as new."

I stood, shaking my head. "Well thanks, I guess."

"No problem," she smiled.

"Sorry to interrupt this little Girls Scout meeting, but can we go? I'd like to take my wife on our honeymoon." Christian's voice was light and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Right. Meeting adjourned." Dimitri entered in the key pad, I put on my shoes, and Lissa gathered her purse.

A bag boy was waiting outside their door with a luggage cart. Lissa smiled at him and gave him a few instructions before Dimitri led on. I followed, taking up the rear, but thinking of the young Moroi guy walking through the hallways alone made me nervous, what with Robert roaming around. So I motioned to Dimitri that I'd catch up with them. It wasn't an easy choice, but the plane was only one building over and they'd pass at least three guardians on their way. (It beat this kid walking by himself, too.) His eyes were full of questions, but he trusted me.

I stood in the hall and watched them walk away. A few minutes later, the bag boy came out of their room and saw me. A look of surprise crossed his face. "How can I help you, Guardian Hathaway?"

I smiled at the sound of sheer terror in his voice. Was I really that scary? "First of all, you can stop calling me Guardian Hathaway; that's my mom's name. I'm going to escort you to the plane, if that's alright with you?"

"Y-yes. Yes, that's fine," he swallowed.

"What's your name?" I asked him as we started our walk.

"Jon. Jon Clark."

"Well Jon, how old are you?"

"21, ma'am. How old are you?"

I didn't hide my shock. "I'm 19. You're seriously 21?"

We came to the entrance of the elevator and I typed in the key code that told it I was a guardian and needed to get to wherever I was going, fast. I helped him push the huge cart in, grunting at its size.

"Yeah," he said. "But I get asked that a lot. No one believes me."

"I can see why. You look, well, you look like you're 16."

He laughed and pointed to the heavy bags we'd just lobbed in. "Aren't they going to Paris?"

I nodded as I pushed another button.

"I went to Paris last summer. It'll definitely be colder this time of year."

It was the beginning of May, which meant the city would be warming up, but there was still enough cloud cover and rain that Liss and Christian could spend some time outside. "Yeah, but vampires like it cool," I winked.

His cheeks turned red and he mumbled out a "Y-yeah. You're right."

I had every intention of making more lame small talk, because that's just what you do in elevators with strangers, but before I could, the doors opened and I saw Robert standing at the end of the hall.

He was still wearing a navy suit, but any charms he'd had on earlier were now gone. His expression was blank, but those brown eyes were the same. I kicked into focus and with a shout to Jon not to move, I took off down the hall. Robert didn't move as I came at him, and it registered to me one second too late that his not moving was strange; too strange. In an instant, black figures floated towards me and a sharp pain split into my skull. I fell to my knees and screamed out, trying hard to push them away. The ghostly faces and headache were things that, in the past, I'd been able to block out. But this was different. Blackness crowded in around me and my skull felt like it was going to burst open.

"Jon!" I screamed, "Get Dimitri!"

I don't know if he heard me. I don't even know if the words actually came out or if they just stayed thoughts. All I knew was the ghost eyes that were floating around me and the throbbing they brought with them. Their moans and screams were getting louder, making my ears ring. When I didn't think I could take anymore, the pain let up, ever so slightly. The ghosts quieted and moved back enough for me to see down the hall to where Robert still stood.

Sweat dripped off of his forehead and his veins bulged. It hit me then: this was a spirit hallucination. Robert was torturing me. I had to break his eye contact to get the pain to stop. But how? The ghost's couldn't touch me but their presence crushed me down. How was I going to get from here to there? Suddenly, thoughts of him doing this same thing to Lissa and Dimitri came to me. With as much concentration as I possessed, I willed myself to stand up.

"Go away!" I told them. "Go AWAY!" My legs shook and my steps were slow, but I pushed myself on.

Two more steps would have been close enough for me to push him down, but I didn't make them. With an insane blow from some invisible force, I fell face down into the carpet. My throbbing head felt like it was being pinned by two enormous hands, hands I couldn't feel with my own. Every breath I took was muffled by the thick carpet and so were my screams. One by one, the invisible hands trapped my flailing limbs to the ground, until I was completely immobile.

"Let me go!" I screamed. "Robert! You sick freak, let me go!"

Something caught my attention and I stopped screaming. Even though my eyes were facing carpet, I began to see things… they were small at first, but they got bigger, closer. Suddenly, I heard music and talking. I saw Lissa standing in a grand room somewhere in the court. She was wearing a ball gown made of cream, taffeta ruffles. Christian was standing next to her, wearing a tux with a matching vest. They were talking to a group of royals dressed just as grandly. _Where am I? _I thought.

I heard my name and tuned in to hear. "Rose?" Lissa said, looking shocked. "I haven't seen Rose in ages! The last I heard, she was somewhere in Russia, working." For some reason, the way she said "working" made me feel like it was a bad thing. Why didn't she know where I was? Better yet, why didn't _I _know where I was?

"It's just such a shame," one royal woman said.

"Yes," added a man. "She had such talent for guarding." I _had _such a talent?

"What does Belikov think of it all?" asked a different man.

It was Christian who replied. "At first he was really torn up. But after dealing with her insubordinate adventures for so long, I think he was somewhat relieved to have her doing what she felt was the right thing for her to do." What was I doing?

"It hasn't been too hard replacing her," Lissa added. "I feel quite safe, still."

"Do you know where she's at in Russia?" asked a woman I thought was a Szelsky. "My sister lives there and I'd like to know if I need to warn her about blood whoring in her neighborhood."

Blood whoring? What was going on here?

Lissa got a sad look on her face. "No, we're not sure. I think I'd have liked to know at first, but, well, she's happy!" By the end of her sentence, she was beaming again.

The group shared disapproving looks and said a few more things along the lines of, "How sad for Janine," and "I'm glad my guardian is a man." Why was this conversation taking place? The last time I'd been to Russia was to see Dimitri's family. Why was I in Russia now? And better yet, why wasn't Dimitri with me? My insubordinate ways? The last insubordinate thing I'd done was… what? What was the last thing I'd done? I could remember Baia with Dimitri, and leaving to Lehigh with Lissa. But then something in my mind shifted, and I saw a mirage of thoughts that felt cold to me, but still fit in my head. We got in a fight, Lissa and me, and I got on a plane. Familiar sights in St. Petersburg came to me, along with a dark club, loud music, smoke, and strange men. I saw a tiny apartment with blue couches and girls- Moroi and human- laying on them. Their faces were covered in makeup and they were wearing dark clothes with holes in them. What was I doing here? More things flashed into my mind; men in my bed, men with me in the club, men with me in the streets. Who were they? None of them were Moroi I recognized, and some were even human.

It all jumbled together in one big haze. The haze felt weird, though, like it was too-cold and too clear. My other memories of St. Vladimir's and Lehigh were warm and blurred around the edges. Why didn't the two match up?

And why couldn't I remember Dimitri very well? He was blurred more than anyone else. His last place in my thoughts was while we were in Baia visiting his family. I recalled a sunny day we'd spent at the market. He'd held my hand and pointed things out to me as we passed them, teaching me words and helping me order food in Russian. The smile on his face was relaxed, and his wonderful brown eyes looked at me with love. It was the eyes that got to me… I'd seen them just a while ago, hadn't I? He was looking up at me for some reason… to help me with… with what? My shoes? My feet? My feet! That was it. He'd knelt down in front of me to look at my sore feet and scold me. Why was I in Russia if I'd just seen him? _You're not in Russia, _a voice in the back of my head said.

Where was I then? I remembered… a green dress, and a necklace that changed colors. Then we'd done something, something big, like walk down a long hall. I'd eaten a lot of chocolate, too. Why was there chocolate? In my head I saw Lissa, but she was wearing something different than a cream taffeta gown. The two images fought together, shifting and changing over and over again. Finally, the warmer thought one. Her dress in my memory was white, with a train. And there was something in her hair… a veil! Another thought came close, but I had to push so, so hard against a cold one. I kept pushing, and little by little I saw Lissa's eyes. They were bright and full of laughter. She was dancing beside me. But then her eyes shifted and were full of tears. Some part of me knew they were happy tears, though. I heard a familiar voice say to her, "We were each other's constants. I consider her more of a sister than anything else."

That voice… those words… Who had said that, how did I know them? I felt another cold thought slip into my mind and adjusted, awkwardly, to see it.

Dimitri was standing in the middle of a gym, wearing a t-shirt and sweat pants. His hair was pulled back and sweat spots showed through his shirt. The look on his face was one I didn't feel I saw often; anger. I was confused, what was wrong? He didn't look that way very often. When he spoke his next words, his voice was harsh and sent chills through me.

"What do you want from me, Rose? I can't keep letting you run around Court breaking rules."

A voice, my voice, yelled back, "You're not my teacher anymore! I'm sick of being treated like a teenager."

"Then stop acting like one!" He bellowed.

"Since when was protecting Lissa from Strigoi something a teenager did? That's all I've been doing!" I felt a cold spike of anger come to me as I said the words.

"No," he glared. "What you've been doing is childish and selfish. Jumping in without thinking of the consequences has gotten three guardians killed, Rose. How is that helping?"

When I replied, my voice was rigid. "Those guardians didn't have the determination it takes to kill Strigoi. You know how hard it is, comrade."

At the mention of the nickname I'd given him, Dimitri winced. "Yes, I do know. I also know that I can't continue to let you do this. I've already turned the report into Hans. There's nothing you can do."

I screamed and ran toward him. He blocked my first punch, but my leg snaked around and landed a kick to his knee. That unsteadied him enough for me to get a punch in to his stomach, but he moved enough that the brunt of it was avoided. His incredibly strong arms pushed me back at the same time his foot swept under mine. I fell back, hard, and landed on my butt. His weight pinned me down, and I was done. It was over just as soon as it had begun.

"You're going to get reassigned, Rose. Accept it." Looking into those eyes again made something surge in me. It came from the warm, memories though. I felt his hands on me when we hugged, I heard his voice when he woke me up in the morning, and I saw his face when he smiled at me. The Dimitri in this cold memory was not the Dimitri I knew.

Suddenly reality snapped back into my head. I remembered everything, giving Lissa the necklace, talking to Daniela Ivashkov, saying those words in the toast I'd given. I remembered walking through the tunnels with them and meeting Jon. I remembered telling Dimitri we had to stay close to her and Lissa healing my feet. I remembered seeing Robert in the hall and being pinned down by his compulsion. Relief flooded me at knowing that the awful bloodwhore future was not my own. Lissa still wanted me, and Dimitri still loved me. No one had replaced me, and my reckless behavior hadn't gotten three guardians killed. I also remembered the crazy old man that was doing all of this to me.

"Nice try," I growled to him. With remembering came the pain in my head, huge, awful waves of it.

That was when I heard his voice in my head.

"Oh Rose," he laughed. "I can't believe you thought you could beat me. I've waited almost a year in the shadows to find you. The ghosts have been waiting, too. How they've missed their shadow-kissed partner. I'm going to take care of that, though. You'll be reunited with them soon enough. When you are, there's going to be more for you to do. I'll make you work for my love, and Lissa and Dimitri really won't want you."

His spirit ramblings sent chills through me, but only because the familiar tinge of compulsion mixed in with them. "Don't you dare try to compel me, you son of-"

"Silence!" He screamed. I yelled too, because when he did, a shooting pain ran from the bottom of my spine to the top of my head. "You have lived too long with the blood of my brother on your hands! It wasn't my plan to do it this way, but when the shadows call, you have to listen."

"When I get out of here, you're going to regret everything you just said," I growled.

"That's the point, Rose. You're not getting out of here." And with that, agony poured over my entire body. I'm not talking the sore-after-a-work-out pain. No, what Robert gave me was the kind of pain that people black out from, the pain that made every single muscle in your body ache. Nothing existed but the waves of torture that rolled over me. After what seemed like forever, the hurt instantly stopped. I panted against the carpet and tried to push my way up. It was no use, because he had more in store for me.

Air pushed into my lungs in a splitting rush, but almost as soon as it came, it went, sucking out everything I had. I felt like my chest was going to collapse, taking the rest of my body with it. Black dots formed in my vision, and I begged for the relief they would bring.

"Plead with me Rose," he panted. "Beg for your freedom!"

Air rushed back into me and I gulped it in thankfully. "Never," I grunted.

"So be it," he growled.

Fiery pain circled me then, spreading itself from my core to my limbs. I screamed again and again, hoping, _praying _that someone would hear me. The flames engulfed my every thought, and I almost begged for that death he was promising. _Almost. _

"I won't stop at just you, Rose." Fire still pulsed through me. "I'll go on to Lissa and Christian, and they will beg for death. Then I'll find your mother and your father, and they'll beg too. But I think I'll save Dimitri for last, and you'll help me." His voice was sick. "You see, you are too important to me, to the shadows. I can't let your soul go to waste," he laughed. "So I'm going to keep you for my own. You'll help me torture and kill the ones you loved most, because what wouldn't you do for your bondmate?" I screamed out in shock. Robert was going to kill me and then restore me, making me his Shadow Kissed mate.

"This little encounter we've had has only been moments long for everyone else, but haven't I made it feel like _years _to you?This will be your new life, Rose Hathaway. Every second will feel like a minute, and every minute like an hour. You will be my Shadow Kissed partner and I will make you pay for Victor. _Every single day." _

My screams were now more for anger and fear than for pain. Every word he said hurt more than any torture he'd given me. I would not let him touch them. _I would not let him. _

In a burst, I pushed back against the invisible hands. The muscles in my body coiled up and, thankfully, the hold broke. I heard Robert gasp as I scrambled to my feet to face him. We were only feet away from each other. It was hard to make my legs move because that invisible hold was back, but I didn't let it pin me this time. Dragging one leg behind, I made jagged steps to him. My hands grasped his neck, just like they'd grasped Victor's, and I began to squeeze. I made myself look into those brown eyes and-

Everything stopped. My hands fell to my side and all I could see was brown. Brown eyes, brown hair, brown duster. I saw Dimitri, standing behind Robert, with a fierce look on his face. Why wasn't he coming to me? He was pounding on something, something invisible. Other guardians joined him then, and they were all hitting the air and yelling. Why weren't they coming to me? I started to call for him when I felt a sharp, hard pain in my stomach. I looked down and saw the shiny blade of a knife, covered in blood.

"You're going to be mine now, Rose," whispered Robert. I felt the pain again, and again, and again. I wanted to defend myself, but my arms stayed put at my side. "We're going to make everyone pay for your sins."

His voice turned into a soft whisper, and then silenced altogether. I fell back into the clouds of black that were waiting for me, and saw the ghosts again. They welcomed me to a place that felt familiar, almost like coming home.


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter 4

**AN: I am so very sorry that you've had to wait extra-long for this chapter! There was a huge storm where I live and it knocked out my internet four three days. **

**My goal is to post every weekend. Expect updates then! Thank you for reading, and comment on what things you want to see in this story. I'd love to hear from you. **

"Rose?" A soft voice came to me through the darkness, belonging to a woman I didn't recognize.

Where was I? I could feel thick blankets on me and smelled lemon and aftershave.

"Is she responding?" His deep accent was one I'd know anywhere, and it was full of worry. It also explained the aftershave.

Through the grog of sleep, I did a quick check of my body, focusing on my stomach especially. A chill ran through me as I remembered why I should hurt. If it actually happened… then Robert had tortured and stabbed me. I was expecting to feel searing pain when I flexed my abs, but nothing happened. What was that about? The image of a bloody knife sticking out of my body was seared into memory, and should have left scars on my stomach…

A small push inside my head, like something was trying to get in, distracted me from the memories. It reminded me of the ghosts I'd seen when Robert tortured me.

"No," said the woman, breaking me out of my thoughts. "I think we should give her a few more hours."

A second later I felt tugging on my arm, followed by a quick but sharp pain. Then sleep reared its head and started pulling me back. I let the comfort of it take me from the unknown woman and Dimitri's voice.

When I opened my eyes I saw white. White ceilings, white crown molding, white cashmere curtains, white light pouring in through a white-framed window, and white carpet.

"Is this heaven?" I whispered.

"No, but you could be an angel." The soft voice washed over me. My eyes found him sitting on a white (go figure) overstuffed chair next to the window. Light bathed him and made his already god-like face and body incredibly irresistible.

"Well if you're here, it's definitely heaven," I smiled. Pushing off the thick ivory blankets was easy. Nothing hurt when I stood and stretched out, either.

"Hmm… but I don't think angels wear that." He gestured to my bare legs.

He was probably right. The black tank top wasn't too bad, but someone had put gray spandex on me. The tight fabric clung to my hips and landed right below my crotch. They were booty shorts, really. "Wasn't I in a green dress at one point?" I asked.

"Yes," he said as he got up and walked to me. "But apparently Lissa thought that would be more comfortable." His arms found my waist and pulled me to him. I buried my face in his chest and breathed in the aftershave I'd recognized earlier.

"Where are we?

"Court," he said into my hair. "You never left. This is a room in the medical wing of the Administration building. It wasn't anything near this nice until Lissa saw it. She's spent the last two days fixing it up for you."

I didn't know where to start… "Of course she would. Two days? Is that how long I've been out? And how is Lissa? Are they in Paris?" Before Robert tried to kill me, we were on our way to Paris for a royal honeymoon.

"Almost four days, she's fine, and no. She's probably getting back from the hearing about Robert. His trial is tomorrow."

"Four days," I breathed. I only remembered waking up once. "Tomorrow is pretty soon, isn't it?" I was thinking back to when Victor Daskov, Robert's brother, was tried for torturing Lissa. His trial took months to reach court.

We had a habit of guessing each other's thoughts, and this situation was no different. Dimitri said, "Yes. Much faster than Victor's, but Lissa isn't okay with waiting like Tatiana was, and the counsel was pretty shook up that it happened so close to home."

"What _actually_ happened?" Robert had me in spirit hallucinations for most of the time that I was last conscious. I could remember the ghosts and the pain, but there were memories… cold memories of Liss and Dimitri leaving me, that kept confusing my reality with spirit.

I guess my expression gave away the troubling memories because his eyes took on an intensity and his voice lowered. "I don't know what Robert did to you before he stabbed you, but you died Roza."

I swallowed. "I…I died?"

"Mhm." His words rumbled in his chest as he said them.

"So, that's it? Boom, bam, I was dead?" I pulled away and went to the window. He followed me and stood close as we watched birds chirping in a nearby tree. "You… you were there at the end, weren't you?"

His face turned sad. "Well, he used a knife, so there was no boom or bam. That was _last _time. And yes, I was there. We tried so hard, Rose," he said desperately. "But I couldn't get to you. Robert had a shield up and it took five of us screaming to break his concentration enough to-"

"Shh," I said, putting my hand to his mouth. "I trust you, and I love you. You were… well it looked like you were hitting the air. I remember wondering why you weren't coming to me. Now I know it was a shield and not me going to crazy town. Don't feel bad," I smiled.

He nodded and leaned down for a kiss. I soaked in the warmth of our closeness, but felt the questions in my mind. When we pulled back, his beautiful eyes were still filled with tension. "You can't keep scaring me, Roza," he breathed into my hair. "I've watched you die too many times."

_Dead…_ I thought. "Dimitri, why am I alive?" I was scared to explore the possibility that had been sitting in the back of my mind. Robert's words haunted me though, reminding me that it was still there. _"You see, you are too important to me, to the shadows. I can't let your soul go to waste."_

He sat me down on the bed and knelt in front of me. "Rose… haven't you felt it yet?"

"Felt what?"

"The bond."

Horror struck through me. Robert's grand plan was to kill me and then bring me back as his Shadow-Kissed mate. He was going to use me for revenge, ironically, against myself. I was going to kill my loved ones at his command. "No…" I swallowed. "I don't want to be his bondmate." I felt tears in my eyes as I imagined the horrific future that would be mine. If that was true, I had to get away from Dimitri and everyone else I loved. I started to stand, but his strong hands were on me in a second.

"Rose, look at me. _His_ bondmate? Who are you talking about?"

"Robert!" My voice shook. "Robert shadow kissed me again. His plan was to bring me back and make me torture my family, to get revenge."

"No, no, Roza. You're not bonded to Robert. As soon as we distracted him enough to drop the shield I pulled him off of you and knocked him out. He's in a cell right now and will never touch you again." The fierceness in his voice made me feel safe.

"Good, because if I ever see him again, I'm breaking one of his body parts."

"Of course you are," he smiled.

I looked at him again and asked what I was still scared to ask. "Who am I bonded to?"

"Let your walls down. See for yourself."

"My walls?" How would he have known they were up? I didn't even know they were up.

"It will make sense soon, just close your eyes and let them in."

When Lissa and I had been bonded, I'd gotten used to putting up my guard when she and Christian hit the love sack. I also had to learn to use it when I left the boundaries of magical wards. Wards were placed to keep anything undead or just plain dead, out. When I went traipsing around outside the Court and St. Vladimir's, nothing was there to protect me from the ghosts that mauled me because I was connected to shadows. Well, nothing except myself. I'd built up a pretty tough immunity to it, and that was the only explanation I had for why I hadn't felt anything until now.

Opening my mind felt weird, kind of like stretching a muscle that was almost healed, but not quite. At first I felt nothing, just my own pounding head. But a few minutes later, images appeared. Slowly but surely I settled into their sight. I saw a hallway in the shopping building at Court, windows that let in sunlight, and Moroi staff members pushing a cart past. A black-coated guardian I thought looked like Guardian Hansen walked in front.

Something else was pushing through… I focused harder and envisioned myself literally pushing down walls. It worked and feelings flooded through me. Worry, stress, exhaustion, anger. More things stacked in, like aching feet and the absolute worst taste in my mouth (well, _their _mouth).

"Ew," I muttered.

Someone was talking. The guardian in front had turned around and was saying something, but I couldn't quite hear it. I saw his lips move and felt like whatever he was saying I agreed with… but what was he saying? I dug my heels in and searched for thoughts. It was like looking for lip gloss in a messy purse. I knew it was there, but I had to push through a ton of junk to find it.

Finally I heard them. They were quiet at first, like whispers. The more I concentrated though, the more I got. I listened harder, looking inside their head for any psycho crazy babbling that would clue it to Robert. I came up with nothing and breathed a sigh of relief. But there was something else…

Worry hit me hard then, worry for _me. _ I heard the guardian at the same time say, "Your majesty, we're just waiting for Guardian Martin to respond and then we can leave."

Your majesty… "Lissa!" I said. Relief filled me. _No Robert! Your family is safe. _

"Okay," she smiled. "Thank you, Sam." Kindness towards the man filled her and distracted her from the anxiety over me.

I pushed through everything then, all my walls and barriers. The familiar feelings of being in her mind came to me. I started rummaging through her thoughts, like I was coming home for the first time in a long time.

"How?" I asked Dimitri. I still kept my eyes on Lissa.

His voice was soft and sad. "When I got to you, you were bleeding badly. You still had a heartbeat though, so I took you to Lissa. I was worried… the work I've done with Sonya and what I know of spirit has proved that it's a temperamental element. But I also couldn't let you die." His breath caught on that last word. "She was hysterical and, like the night of your crash, used that to summon the power it took to bring you back. But, we honestly didn't know you were gone. Lissa swears you still had a lingering aura and we both thought she'd just healed your wounds; not returned your soul."

Lissa had started walking again with Hansen while he spoke. "So how did you know we were bonded then?"

"Sonya saw it. The day after we all spent time near you, waiting. Sonya came up to see how you were doing and that was the first thing she noticed. Lissa didn't believe her at first… but things are different this time. It took another spirit user to see it, but we're sure of it now."

I didn't like the sound of that. "Different? How? She feels the same to me." She'd been in meetings all day, (which she was used to) but they were all about Robert, so she felt extra exhausted. She missed Christian and was worried about me. They were on their way to the feeders and then straight to her room. She really wanted to come check on me, but sleep was tugging at her and she knew she needed rest. I was glad she was choosing it over me. I'd see her in the morning and we'd sort all of this "different" bond business out.

"Well…" Dimitri hesitated.

I pulled myself away from her and focused onto his brown eyes. "Tell me."

"The bond is stronger. Since you two have been bonded before, you both knew what to expect, subconsciously at least. Sonya explained it as a muscle. The more you work it out, the stronger it gets. Since you two have been this way before, it's stronger."

My head was spinning. "Did Sonya say _how _it was stronger?" I popped back into Lissa's head and searched for answers. She was just as confused as I was, but had Sonya's words to comfort her. I saw her sitting on my white bed, looking at me with her pretty blue eyes, saying _"You and Rose are going to have to re-learn everything."_

He shook his head. "She's still here though. Tomorrow we can meet with her and sort it all out."

"Okay," I sighed. More questions mixed in with the hum of Lissa and I suddenly felt exhausted. "Wait. If she healed me, why did I sleep for four days?" Lissa had completely fixed me the night of our crash and I'd walked away totally unscathed. Why was this time different?

"That's something Sonya couldn't figure out either. Do you have any ideas?"

"No. Everything feels the same to me… it took a while to get a hold of her, but now I can feel her like before. My walls are working, too." I was about to go on when my stomach growled.

"Come on," he said as he stood up. "Let's go get you food."

"Just when the mystery was getting good, I turn into a Humpback whale."

"No," he laughed. "I think you sounded more like an Orca."

"What are you, a whale expert? I don't think they have any in Siberia."

"This is coming from the girl who thought Siberia was a tundra waist land?"

He had a point. "Well I'm still going with Humpback."

We'd reached the door when, while turning to pull it open for me, he said, "Rose, I think pants would make everyone much more comfortable."

I put my hands on my bare thighs and laughed. "Right. Are there pants in here?" We looked around for a bag but only saw white furniture and carpet.

"Here," he said, taking off his duster.

"Oh woah woah woah, Belikov. Now this is a serious commitment! Are you sure you're ready for this step?"

The eye roll I got was priceless. "If I remember correctly, it's you who has problems with taking things to a new level." We started down the hall.

I pulled on the leather coat and breathed in the smell. "Mmm. It's you in a coat." My plan was to ignore his comment for as long as possible.

"Nice try. Now is as good of a time as any to talk about it."

"Or to _not _talk about it."

I thought back to, well I guess four days ago, at the wedding reception where my mother had shattered my tough view of her. In a totally uncharacteristic move, she told me to marry Dimitri. I'd pushed off telling him then because, well, it was just a lot to process. Even four days later I was still struggling with it. Considering that I'd only been conscious for about 30 minutes made me feel better about still being overwhelmed, though.

"Rose."

I sighed. "It's going to blow your mind."

"I'm ready. Go."

So I told him all about it. I even told him how she'd rendered me speechless three times (he laughed) and gave her speech about my entire life being abnormal. By the time I finished, we'd made it to a sandwich shop in the basement of the shopping building and ordered.

He sat across from me and stayed quiet for a long time. "I agree," he finally said.

"Okay…? With what?" I took a bite of my avocado and bacon sandwich.

"All of it. We're exclusive, and I really do think it would show unity. It's never been done before. We could start a revolution," he winked.

"No way, partner. I start the revolutions and you give the orders."

He didn't smile like I'd hoped he would. "Rose, tell me why you don't want to marry me."

The intensity of the question shocked me. After everything that had happened with Robert, the wedding and all this "marry Dimitri" nonsense seemed so far away. But in one single, intense sentence, he brought the full severity of it down on me. I looked in his eyes and saw the absolute, desperate way he loved me. He'd wanted to marry me for months but hadn't ever asked me this question until now. What was my answer?

"I love you, you know that. But I'm only 19. I just feel…"

"You feel what?" he asked. "And don't say too young, because you've never been young."

"That's the thing! I _do _feel young. I feel like everything else I've done in my life, I've been at least a little bit trained to handle. But marriage? I got nothing."

"You know," he said after chewing a bite of his BLT, "there's this little thing called "trust." It's where you believe in me and I believe in you, and together we do a thing called "live." It's quite exciting."

Pride radiated through me, because the response he gave was totally something I would have said. I was really influencing the world. "I don't appreciate your sassy remarks," I teased.

"And I don't appreciate hearing the woman I love reject the only serious thing I've ever asked of her."

Another flooring comment. _Zing. You got me there, Dimitri. _

I took another bite and thought about my next words for a long time. "I want to be with you, really. But marriage is different than dating. I lose my last name, we become a permanent part of each other's family's, and we seal the deal with rings. Suddenly our relationship is on display for everyone to see and we're not _just_ guardians anymore."

He nodded but didn't say anything. I waited, but the serious look on his face showed that whatever he was going to say, he was going to think about first. We finished our sandwiches in silence and I checked back in on Lissa. She was climbing into bed with an already sleeping Christian and was almost asleep herself. Seeing him brought her comfort, but the worry she felt over me stayed. After snuggling up to him her eyes closed and she was out.

Dimitri paid and we left. On our way out I noticed the Moroi cashier look at me funny. I almost said something, but then remembered that I was wearing his huge leather coat.

"Can we stay at our place tonight?" Thinking of a shower and sweats made me feel better.

He nodded and turned the opposite way we'd come, in the direction of guardian housing. After we stepped outside, he pulled his phone out and dialed a mystery number. I soaked in the sun while he let the doctors in charge of me know where I was.

"Thanks," I said when he hung up.

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for calling them. I didn't even think about that."

When we got back, he went straight into our small spare room and closed the door. I sighed, knowing that he'd be reading some Western until he was ready to talk to me again. I left his duster on the coat rack by the door and went in to change. The apartment was just how we'd left it on the morning of the wedding, neat and homey. Familiar smells of lemon and mint, a combination of my favorite lotion and Dimitri's shampoo, washed over me. Our closet was the messiest part of the place, with clothes and shoes strung on the floor. I smiled when I saw a pair of his jeans laying rumpled on the ground.

Something I'd learned about Dimitri when we moved in together was that he hated wrinkly clothes. It was a little odd to me, but I was always careful when it was my turn to do laundry. Seeing his jeans laying on the floor must have meant that something was much more important than ridding the world of wrinkles.

I got choked up when I realized that that something had been me, laying in a bed, not responding. That brave, sincere man loved me enough to leave wrinkles in his jeans. Why couldn't I marry him?

Everything I'd said in the sandwich shop was true; I felt young and unprepared. Marriage was a serious commitment and it was going to require that I trust him more than I ever had before.

But wasn't that what our entire lives had consisted of already? We both trusted that our society needed us enough to devote our lives to protecting it. We both trusted that our skills could take on impossible odds. We'd trusted each other on missions, knowing that the other always had our back. I'd trusted him to train me, he'd trusted me to learn. What was so different this time?

I gave up on solving the case when a headache started itching at my eyes. I'd finished cleaning our closet and headed to the bathroom. A shower sounded good. When I was dried off and in a robe, a quick blow dry and thick sweats waited for me. Just before I turned on the dryer, I heard a knock on the door.

"Can we talk?" he asked through the door.

I opened it and the steamy smell roll out on him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I've missed your shampoo," he said.

I still hadn't solved the riddle of why this was different, but something in his face told me that he wasn't hoping for much.

"You don't want to get married, and the last thing I want to do is force you into it. So we'll make a compromise. I won't mention marriage again, and neither will my family. It'll be ignored and forgotten."

"So what's my part?" I asked.

"Think about it every day," he said. "After a while, if you still don't want to, we'll drop it and stay dating."

That seemed too good to be true, but he wasn't lying. "Just think about it, that's all?"

He nodded. "Every day."

"Okay, I will.

He started to turn when I wrapped my arms around him. "I love you," I said into his chest.

"I love you too."

That night I laid in his arms and let my mind race. Ghosts from Robert haunted me along with Lissa's dreams. The bond didn't feel any different than it had before, but there were still so many questions. Sonya was our only hope of answering many of them. The rest we'd have to find through experience. Even though we'd spent years connected, I somehow felt like I was an outsider looking in. I didn't like it.

He pulled me closer in his sleep, giving me an up close view of his gorgeous face. How had I gotten so lucky? Dimitri was the only man I'd ever truly loved, and was the last man I planned on loving. We'd been through so much that the last eight months felt like a happily ever after to me. Why did I need to get married to him if everything was already so great?

I don't know when I drifted off, but I woke up to a loud 80's song. He was alert instantly, leaning over me to the bedside table where his phone sat.

"Lissa, is everything alright?" he asked. I sat up and went to her through the bond.

She was sitting in the heaven room with Christian at her side. "Where's Rose?" she asked, worried.

"With me," answered Dimitri.

"Is she alright?" She felt annoyed that no one had called her when I woke up.

"Yes. We didn't want to wake you when she moved; it happened late last night." His voice was kind and calmed her. Guilt over her anger surged through her and she sighed.

I could feel her relaxing while they made plans for us to meet in 30 minutes. She would call Sonya and meet us in her apartment.

"It's so weird," I said when he hung up. "It's like I never left her head. Also, that's a horrible ringtone."

"Yeah? That will make the questions with Sonya go smoother," he said, ignoring my dig.

"Seriously, you have to let me change that." I reached for his phone but he was too quick.

"Black Velvet is a classic, Rose. Good music doesn't have to be Katy Perry and Justin Beiber, you know."

"Woah gramps," I laughed. "How'd you know about those guys?"

He took the pillow I was laying on and smacked my head with it. "You're impossible."

"But you love me," I smiled.

He looked down on me in that way that made me feel like I was his redemption, his life. "I do."

Our kissing would have probably led to more, which I was just fine with, but he pulled away after I'd taken his shirt off. "We have to meet Lissa," he said.

"Aw man," I groaned. "You're always doing that! Just because you have more control than I do doesn't mean you can tease me."

A smile came to his lips. "I don't do it on purpose. I just can't have you showing up places all flustered and hot," he winked.

I glared. "I'll get you someday, Belikov."

"I can't wait," he said in my ear. _Horrible timing, Liss. Horrible. _

We got dressed quickly, (he wore completely unwrinkled jeans and a t-shirt) and left to Lissa's.

On our way there, guardians and Moroi gave me surprised hellos. No one had been walking around last night when we came through, so to them, I was awake for the first time in five days. I said hi and we did our best to explain the situation. When one Moroi waitress asked how much healing Lissa had to do, I lied and said "Not much, just my stab wounds."

Everyone seemed to believe me. I wasn't ready to tell them something I didn't understand myself, but wasn't sure how we'd bring up the bond again later.

Dimitri gave the two passwords needed to get into Lissa's apartment and I signed us in on the ledger. Another keypad at her door and we were in the giant apartment she shared with Christian.

When she saw me, joy flooded through her. I saw myself through her eyes when we hugged, and smiled with her. "Long time no see," I joked.

"I can't believe it happened again," she said.

"I know. Have you felt anything different?"

She shook her head. "What about you?"

"No. It took a little bit for it to all come back, but you feel the same to me. Everything is normal."

"Then what'd Sonya mean when she said it was stronger?" Christian asked.

He was sitting on a black leather couch. Dimitri had subconsciously moved near him, and the two of them together made Lissa and I smile (like always).

"I don't know," I said. "Where is she?"

"She's at the door now," Lissa said. Spirit users could sense other spirit users, which came in handy for them. I secretly wished I could do the same thing; it would have helped when I ran into Robert.

Seconds later, Sonya Carp walked in, followed by her boyfriend (and fellow guardian,) Mikhail. She wore her auburn hair in wild curls today and sort of looked like she hadn't got any sleep.

"Rose," she breathed. Her hands feathered out around me, probably shaping over my aura. "Have you taken any darkness yet?"

"I don't think so." I looked to Lissa and she shook her head in agreement. "I just woke up a few hours ago."

Sonya turned her eyes to Lissa and stared. They glassed over and the room stayed quiet while she looked. After a solid three minutes, the awkward silence got to me. "Er… Sonya?"

Mikhail whispered something in her ear and then kissed her head. With a sigh, he looked at me and spoke. "Rose, Sonya has a theory about you and Lissa." The way he said it made my breath catch.

"What is it?" Lissa asked. She was equal parts nervous and excited.

"Keep in mind, it's just a theory," he said. "Sonya thinks that when you were healed, your body fought back. Since Lissa was already healing, she subconsciously defended herself. The two parts collided, but before they could separate, you were completely healed and they were forged together. A part of each of you is bonded to the other."

My head was spinning. Or was that Lissa's? Her emotions were so strong it was hard to separate them. "So what's different? Part of me was bonded to Lissa before."

"Right," Mikhail nodded his head. "But this time Lissa fought back."

"How does that change things?" she asked.

Mikhail looked at Sonya, who had been staring at my aura like it was old world Hebrew that had to be translated immediately. In one quick movement, she brushed her hand through it and closed her eyes. Her voice was a whisper when she finally said, "It means that the bond works both ways, now."


	5. Chapter Five

**AN: Guys, I'm SO sorry it's taken this long to upload the next chapter! Thank you for patiently waiting. I'm back on schedule now, so expect an update next weekend! **

**Thanks again for reading, and give me some feedback about what you want to see! Some parts are written, some are writing themselves. You could be a part of those that are writing themselves! **

Chapter 5

My favorite part in any movie is the part when the secret plot gets revealed and proves me right. What can I say, I have a knack for predicting trouble. My _least _favorite part is when I predict wrong and get shocked along with everyone else. Dimitri always laughs when that happens and purposely takes me to movies that he thinks will do that to me. It's my reaction or something. He takes sick pleasure in it, really.

But I don't think he took any pleasure in the moment _our_ movie turned into a living telekinesis fest of confusion. Sonya was looking at me, I was looking at Lissa, Lissa was staring at Christian, Christian was gaping at Sonya, and Dimitri and Mikhail were looking between us all.

"W… what?" I shook my head. "How is this possible?"

Sonya shrugged and broke her gaze. "I told you, it's just a guess. But one that, the more I'm around you two, the more I believe." She sat down with Mikhail and looked to Lissa. "Haven't you felt Rose?"

Lissa looked like a perfect statue of shock. "I haven't felt anything," she whispered.

"Well what would she have felt?" I asked annoyed. "I haven't been conscious for more than 10 hours."

Sonya shrugged again, like I was asking her who won last night's game. "I don't know that either. But I do know that when I look at your auras, I see a distinct, double connection."

My mind was racing, but Lissa's was slamming to a halt. The conflict made my head pound, so I completely withdrew from her. If we were really bonded… what would that mean for the darkness I took from her? Would she see me like I saw her? Could spirit work the same way?

"How come I can't see it?" Lissa asked. She sounded excited, which only confused me more.

"There's no way you believe this, Liss! We have-"

"Reach out to Rose," Sonya interrupted. "Concentrate on her. Rose," she looked to me, "concentrate on letting some of your defenses down. It's no wonder she couldn't feel anything with all your barricades up."

"What do you see in their auras?" Dimitri asked. He looked at Sonya intently and avoided my gaze. I knew already that he believed her, and he knew I knew. The man was saving himself from a perfect Rose Hathaway glare. I gave him one anyways.

Sonya's eyes glazed over again as she looked at Lissa and me. "I see both auras distinctly, but they're mixing around … like water colors."

"We're not some painting," I growled. Ms. Karp was a cool lady, and she'd helped us out a lot. But she was crazy. I didn't know why Lissa and Dimitri were so believing of her and this insane idea.

She shot a glare at me. "Rose, this would all be nothing if you'd just let Lissa in."

"This would all just be nothing if you weren't making up insane stories," I glared back.

"Rose?" Liss begged, "let me try."

"Try _what, _Liss?" I yelled. "This is-"

"Enough!" bellowed Sonya. "Rosemarie Hathaway, _I know what I see. _I don't have all the answers, but I need you to let Vasilisa in."

I stared, wide-eyed and silent. I was annoyed with this entire situation and did not agree, but I wasn't stupid. If I said anything more, Sonya was going to snap, and we'd have an ugly mess of Karp on our hands. Lissa came to stand next to me and squeezed my hand in support.

Sonya, after seeing our faces, put her head in her hands and sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled."

"Don't apologize." Lissa's voice was kind and I could feel the tiniest bit of compulsion mixed with her words. "What do we need to do?"

"It's really what Rose needs to do," Sonya said into her hands. "She's got walls that rival Rome."

"She can let them down." Dimitri had moved closer to me when Sonya screamed and put a strong hand on my shoulder. "When they were bonded before, Rose could let her walls down to talk to ghosts."

"Yes, but this bond is twice as strong. That means Rose is going to have to push twice as hard. It's not going to be easy."

"Wait. I'm confused." It took physical effort for me to keep the annoyance out of my voice. "Like Dimitri said, before it was to let in ghosts. It also hurt, a lot. Lissa isn't a ghost, and I really hope letting her in doesn't hurt."

Bringing up the pain made Liss worry. "I don't want her to be in pain," she said.

"I honestly don't have any idea what this is all going to bring," Sonya brought her eyes up to meet mine and I saw the exhaustion in them. "All I know is that something is very different this time than before. You're going to have to re-learn everything, Rose. But we have to start somewhere."

I didn't like where any of this conversation had gone. It was completely uncharted territory that we were going to on the word of a crazy lady. If I'd learned anything about spirit, it was how unruly the element really was. Sure, it did a lot of good, but with all the good came darkness. Lissa was already used to it, but I knew being Shadow Kissed to be a separate thing than using spirit magic. I got all the darkness that spirit created. What would being doubly-bonded mean for the Shadow Kissed side of me?

There was also the little matter of whether or not I _could _do it. We were bonded for almost two years before I learned how to control my walls. If what Sonya said was true, and I highly doubted it was, then it was going to take a ton of mental focus to let my newly fortified walls down. Lissa looked at me with all the trust in the world, like she usually did. She totally believed Sonya and she totally believed that I could just drop my walls and let her in.

_Well, here goes nothing._ "Strong emotions," I said to Liss.

She looked confused. "What?"

"Strong emotions bring bondmates in. If you really are bonded to me, then any strong emotion I feel will pull you into feeling it with me. I'll think of something big, and try to pull you in."

"Okay," she nodded. "Is there anything I need to do?"

"Focus on me. That's really all the advice I can give you."

She nodded and sat. Her determination was pretty cute actually. If this whole situation wasn't so messed up, I would have been proud of that fire in her. We nestled across from each other and I took her hands. Everyone gathered around us, like we were at show-and-tell, and Lissa closed her eyes.

"Choose something powerful, Rose," Sonya whispered.

_Great, _I thought. _We're all taking advice from the least sane person in the room._

It wasn't easy picking something out. In fact, that's probably what most of our time was spent waiting on; me picking a thought. When it came though, I knew it was the right one. It was my original plan to choose one with Lissa in it. I thought that would've been a nice touch, letting her "wake up" to a memory of us together. But Dimitri was pulling my head left and right, and with the smell of his aftershave right next to me, I couldn't help myself.

I chose the day he told me he didn't love me anymore. Granted, there were happier memories to choose from, but I didn't think he'd appreciate me showing Lissa our sex life. So sadness and despair over losing him was the next best choice. I replayed the conversation in my mind, feeling all over again what I had felt when he told me. I saw his eyes again for the first time since he'd been Strigoi, heard his velvet voice... but it brought bad news. I let all of the initial shock and heartache fill me and choke me up. I was just starting to regret choosing this when something changed.

A tiny push in the back of my head distracted me from the memory long enough for me to lose it. I heard Lissa gasp and opened my eyes to her shocked face.

"I…I felt something," she breathed.

"That was you?" I asked.

She nodded. "Or at least, I think it was?"

Something about that push seemed so familiar… when had I felt it before? "I've felt that before," I said. "I don't know when."

"Good!" Sonya smiled. I saw a crazy gleam come to her eyes and braced myself for some spirit babbling. Before she could say anything, Lissa pulled my attention back to her.

"Do it again. Think of something."

"Did you see anything?"

"No," she looked sad. "I think I was close, though." Through the bond I could tell that she saw me in her thoughts, was focusing hard on me, but it was like something slammed her back just before anything else happened.

"I'll try again," I said.

Another memory of Dimitri came to me. It was back when we were in St. Vladimir's chapel, sitting in each other's arms. I had just broke down about the spirit madness when he told me he loved me for the first time. I didn't know how to handle the darkness then, so his strength was all that kept me sane. It was the first time he said how he felt for me. That was when I knew what coming home felt like; it was being with him.

Just before he said "That's why I love you," I felt the little push at the back of my head. I tried so hard to keep my focus on Dimitri, but lost it just as the push got stronger.

"Oh no," Lissa sighed.

"Unbelievable. I felt you both times," I said.

Christian asked, "Did it work?"

"Sort of," Lissa said. I felt it all again in her head, how close she was, the slamming door thing.

"Man," I breathed, "I've got some wicked strong walls."

Sonya, in an I-told-you-so-voice, said "I don't think you're choosing strong enough memories, Rose. It has to be something that still captivates you."

I turned my glare towards her. "And what do you suggest?

"Rose," Lissa said calmly, "She's is just trying to help. Thank you, Ms. Karp." She gave a golden smile and Ms. Karp backed off.

"I think we should try this all some more later," Mikhail interrupted, pulling Sonya to him.

I was confused. "Why not now?" I still wasn't convinced that we were bonded, but the pushes I'd felt in my head were odd… something was definitely there.

Dimitri answered. "Robert's trial starts in 30 minutes."

"This is all too much," I sighed.

Lissa nodded sympathetically. "Our entire life has been too much."

"Well," I said opening the door for her, "at least there are no more crazy spirit users on the loose."

"That we know of."

In her thoughts I saw the memory of a coronation test where her worst fears came to life. She was shipped off to Tarasov to keep the rest of us safe.

"Hey. That won't be you," I said.

She frowned. "I wish I could get into your thoughts. It would be nice for a change."

"Nope," I laughed. "You'd hate my head."

"Yeah right! I'd spend the entire time laughing. Your mental commentary has got to be hilarious," she smiled.

I rolled my eyes. "It's all fun and games until, oh, oops! Rose and Dimitri time. That would _really _be funny."

"Right," she bit her lip. "It would make things awkward… you could teach me about walls!"

We both laughed and I opened another door for her, one that led into her office. The cream and white room always gave me mixed emotions, ones that involved Tatiana and Adrian. I was grateful that Liss had added her own style to the place, but it still made me feel… off.

"Woah!" I glanced at the clock. "Is it really 7:30?" That meant we had been in the court room for over ten hours.

"Yeah," she sighed.

"I honestly thought he would have had a fast conviction."

"Me too," she said darkly. She wanted it to be an in-n-out kind of thing, but the council members, even though they had no deciding vote, had iron lungs. Lissa was "strongly encouraged" to take their comments into consideration, so she had to wait until they were done considering. Their deliberation meeting took four hours alone.

The trial had gone so similarly to Victor's, only Robert wasn't as sick or twisted. He was still crazy, but not as sick. His spirit ramblings only made it worse, which made the council's slow decision even weirder. But in the end after mine, Dimitri, and Jon's testimonies, Robert's ramblings, and the pictures of my wounds (pre-healing,) Robert was sentenced to life in Tarasov with no chance of parole. His plane left in the morning. No one but the guards would ever see him again.

It felt like I should have been mad at Robert; everyone expected me to. Really, I just felt sorry for him. I knew firsthand how difficult spirit was. It didn't mean I wanted to be his bondmate and kill my family, but it meant that I could forgive him and move on. He was gone, my loved ones were safe, case closed.

"It seems too good to be true," I said quietly.

"Hmm?"

"Well, it's just weird that we caught the bad guy so soon, you know? Usually it takes an epic hunt and lots of time. Robert was found the same day he was seen. Isn't that kind of strange? For us at least."

"Huh," she said. "You're right. I'm more surprised that you aren't furious with him."

"Dimitri said the same thing," I smiled. "It's just… well, spirit makes good people do bad things." She started to frown and think of herself doing what Robert did. "But wait, wait. Just listen. You and I are going to do this together. We'll take care of each other, you know that. Robert didn't have that. He was isolated in his insanity."

At first, she stayed worried, but seeing me there gave her courage. I'd never let her down before, I wasn't planning to ever. "You're right," she smiled. "Together."

She gathered a few papers, signed some stuff, and then we left. We were hugging goodnight at the door to my building when she whispered, "Can I try again later tonight?"

We both knew what she would be trying, but I wasn't excited like she was. I nodded and left. I still wasn't sold on the double bond thing; I wasn't sure about a lot of things. The questions far outweighed the answers. What we did know was that the bond was back, and Robert was not a threat anymore. But was it really double? Could I still take spirit from her if it went both ways? Why did I sleep so long if she fully healed me? Dimitri had told me Sonya was going to answer questions. All she did was tick me off. But I had felt something pushing into my mind…

My phone buzzed once, pulling me out of the questions. "Speak of the devil," I muttered. Sonya had sent me a text.

**Sorry about upsetting you. Can we meet again tomorrow? I have some more theories. **

I replied with a place and time, but no apology. I knew I needed to, but she had been a serious bearer of bad news. And she yelled at me.

Getting ready for bed without Dimitri made me sad. He was on 24-hour duty today, filling in for someone. I hadn't spent much time with him lately, and the time that we _had _spent was filled with marriage talk and the awkward questions I couldn't answer. When had my life turned into such a big pool of quizzes I couldn't make sense of? Oh right- last week. I was a guardian, a decision maker. How was I supposed to make any decisions if I didn't know any answers? Sleep, after hours, pulled me out of my thoughts. I welcomed it, but still felt alone in our big bed.

Our kiss was deep and electric. His hands roamed over me, leaving heat wherever they went. It'd been a long, stressful day, and this was just what I needed.

"Your majesty," he whispered "I think you need to get some rest."

"But this is so much fun." I wrapped my leg around his waist and pulled his mouth back to mine.

Those blue eyes were all I could see, his mouth was all I could taste… "Christian," I breathed.

Christian? _Oh no. Oh my sweet stars, no. This can't be happening again. _

I could feel Lissa pulling me in; emotional spikes always made our bond act up. With my vast experience in mental walls, I thought I'd have passed this stage. Apparently not though, because I was fornicating with the King. I pulled myself out of her head hard, slamming a barrier up behind me. Sitting up made me dizzy, or was it Christian's kisses?

Back in my own room I kicked off the hot sheets. My alarm clock would have gone off in ten minutes, but I hadn't woken up to it in so long that it looked like an antique just sitting on my nightstand. I smiled when I heard the shower running and an 80's song playing quietly. Dimitri's shift had just ended, and I wished desperately that I could wait in bed for him, but mine was starting in an hour.

I tip-toed quietly to the door and listened in. A few months ago I caught him singing to a Simon and Garfunkel song and made it my mission to catch him at it again. I frowned a little when all I heard was the water and a guitar solo.

"Lissa woke me up again," I said, opening the door and pushing the "off" button on his iPod speakers. I didn't need AC/DC helping me out, especially since Dimitri wasn't singing along.

"Yeah?" he asked from the shower.

I smelled his shampoo and smiled when I saw his neatly hung clothes on the towel rack.

"Yep. It was at least in their bedroom, though." Last week it was a car, her office, the gym, and her private hot tub.

"Hey, I'd call that progress," he laughed.

"It's just… so much stronger. Before I could control completely when I went in and out of her head. Now it's a toss-up. An overly-invasive, way-too-personal toss-up." This bond had become a big frustration for me lately. I was grateful that I could protect her better. Not so grateful that she could pull me in at the drop of a hat because we were doubly linked.

"I'm just grateful my walls are strong enough to keep her out of _our _time. That would be embarrassing." I combed back my dark hair and started fashioning a pony-tail.

"It's only been three weeks, Rose. That's nothing to brag about."

I didn't need to see his face to know that he looked worried. "No sweat babe, I've got a thick skull. She's not getting in any time soon." The last part was a sore subject for Liss. She'd been trying for three weeks to see into my head with no luck. I finally accepted that the bond was two ways when I discovered it was twice as hard to control when I was in or out of her head, but she still couldn't be in my head.

"You say that now, but really, you can't promise anything." He turned the water off and grabbed a towel.

"I can too!" I said with a toothbrush in my mouth. "You're killing me, comrade. The lack of faith is just too much."

"I have faith in you. I do not have faith in Lissa forever staying from your head, especially when we make love, or when we're having private conversations. Or when you're spying on me to see if I'm singing in the shower." That last one made me grin.

"Well when you put it like that…"

"Rose, seriously."

"So what?" I turned to him and momentarily gawked at his bare chest. "We're just supposed to avoid it for the rest of our lives?"

He shrugged. "Or until we find a solution to the peeking."

"Right," I rolled my eyes. "Let's find a solution to the magical bond between two young women, both in serious relationships. Not to mention that this "peeking" you speak of is nonexistent. What next, Dr. Phil?"

He smiled and shook out his wet hair on me. "Don't mock me, Wild Girl. It really is something I worry about."

"I know," I sighed as I wrapped my arms around him. "It doesn't make me happy either. There isn't much for me to do right now because nothing we've tried works. Even if Lissa gets into my head, it's going to take a long time for her to be able to control anything. I'm sure we can stay out of each other's personal fun time." _Except for the twice as strong bond that you can't control, _I thought.

The wink I gave him when I said "fun time" made him laugh. He pulled me tight against him and we kissed for a few minutes. I groaned inwardly that he couldn't be mine all night.

After he left for bed I finished getting ready. Looking back to the mirror, I let my thoughts take me back to all that had happened... I did a mental recap of what we knew so far. The last three weeks had been spent with Sonya, doing experiments and research. We knew that if I wouldn't have fought back when Lissa healed me, it would still be a one-way thing. Our best guess was that since I'd healed myself before, my subconscious was trying to do it again. Another good guess was that if Lissa hadn't have gotten to me, my will wouldn't have lasted much longer. Yet again, she saved me.

Sonya and Lissa had done a lot of aura talking, too. They were scared that Lissa couldn't see the bond, but decided that because our auras were permanently linked it made sense. Apparently it took a lot of years to see your own aura clearly. Sonya described it as some self-realization, mental clarity thing.

My biggest worry was being able to take the darkness from her. We'd done a few little experiments where Dimitri cut his hand and she healed him, and I had been able to take that from her. It seemed that I could take it as long as I was really focused on my defenses. We were thinking of it as a hallway (the bond,) and our heads as doors. The hall linked us, but if we both had our door closed, then what was in my head would stay there, and what was in Lissa's would stay there. Lissa's door was a lot harder for her to open and close, so we theorized that if she couldn't even open her door, there was no way she was opening mine. (Sonya described my door as iron and wired.) Even with my experience from our last bond, I knew that more darkness would require bigger focus. That was when I decided to teach Lissa how to build walls. It'd been incredibly tedious because we worked with absolutely nothing tangible. She was a quick learner though, and I was happy with her progress. It was going to be a long road, but I felt confident that with more practice, I could take as much darkness as she needed me to.

_But how much of it can you stand?_ Anxiety rolled over me as I thought back to the parking lot with Victor. I'd killed him in a spirit rage that was, until recently, the last one I thought I would ever have. Thinking of it again made me nervous… I became a monster in those dark moments and wanted to avoid them at all costs. In the chaos of all the new discoveries, no one but Dimitri and I paused when we talked about darkness. He'd seen a lot of the aftermath and knew how crazy (literally) it made me, but was patient and had let me ignore it. For right now, ignoring it was the only way to deal. Neither of us was ready to talk about it.

I finished getting ready and sulked out of our room to start my shift. Graveyard wasn't at all my favorite, but this one was made even worse knowing that through the doors and down the hallway, their majesty's were getting it on. I met up at the guard office outside the Queen's wing (Liss had her own wing. It was sickening) and clocked in. He gave me a perimeter update and handed me the log before leaving. It was a requirement to sign in every guest that came in and to leave a summary of the shift. The logs were annoying, but the reason our last queen had been brutally murdered was because the guards didn't have this kind of system in place. It all linked with the new passwords, key codes, and tunnels, and it all made Lissa safer.

An hour before my shift ended I felt Lissa getting up. She and Christian had spent a good part of the night canoodling, so I'd stayed clear of her. Now it felt like the coast was clear, so I sent her a text message.

**Hello your Majesty. Your night looked… fun.**

She was brushing her hair in front of the bathroom mirror when she saw it; her jaw dropped. I laughed and got some weird looks from the guardians around me.

**Oh no! Rose… I thought I was keeping you out?**

**Nope. I kept myself out. Thank heavens. **

**Come see me.**

None of the other guards even looked up when I left my seat and entered the code to her room. Perks of being the long-time best friend, I guess.

"So, you saw…?"

I stood in the doorway of her enormous bathroom while she curled her platinum hair. "It was hard not to… you were really going at it."

The horror she felt matched her expression, and I couldn't help but laugh. "I hate that I can't control it," she groaned.

"Hey don't feel bad. It took me a long time to get the hang of it. Besides," I added dryly, "it really is everyone's dream to be woken up by your best friend's avid sex life."

She rolled her eyes and handed me a piece of hair that she couldn't get curled right. "You and Dimitri haven't ever pulled me in."

"Yes, because our bond has scared the poor man into completely ignoring me in that way, and we can't get you past my walls."

"Oh no," she groaned. "I'm ruining everything."

I laughed again and rolled my eyes. "Stop being dramatic."

"Rose I'm serious! I keep you from sleeping _and _quality time with your boyfriend."

"You're right, but I've had worse."

"Sure you have, but not from your best friend," she said sadly.

"Hey, it's going to be okay. I forgive you, really." I smiled and hugged her.

I waited in by the door while she gathered her things and kissed the sleeping Christian. "Think you could escort me to the feeders?" she asked.

"Sure," I shrugged. "Why not just order one?"

Lissa had pretty much every perk imaginable. If she wanted it, she got it. Thankfully, she was a good and humble person who kept things relatively normal. But even I would have ordered a feeder up; the building they were kept in was almost a 10 minute walk.

She scrunched her nose up and shook her head. "No way. It reminds me too much of getting take-out chinese."

"Well that's racist," I laughed. "I'd like a burger with extra ketchup, please…"

"Shut up," she punched my arm. "It's disgusting.

I was still laughing when we got to the guard station in the hall. I told a woman named Irina about Lissa's request and they called in two more guards to go with us. I took near and the other two fanned out, one ahead and one behind, as we set off through the underground tunnels.

"Rose," Lissa said quietly, "I have an idea about the bond."

"Yeah?"

"First, I really am sorry about… er, well, you know."

"Sure do. What else?"

"I was thinking, instead of just remembering things that are strong, you could actually _do _things that bring me in?"

That's what Dimitri was scared of, and honestly, I was not okay with her seeing it either. "Neither of us wants to see that part of our relationships, Liss."

"No," she rolled her eyes. "I'm not just talking about sex. Don't you do other things that are… powerful?"

"Uh… like what?" We were leaving the tunnel under her building when we passed a group of guardians that took left and right flanks next to her.

They were too close for us to keep talking, but without missing a beat, Lissa kept going in her head. _Like fighting? Combat? Doesn't that give you a rush? _

I gave a short nod.

_Right! Okay, so why don't you train tonight and we'll try it? _

I shook my head and pointed to my watch, and then pointed to her. I was trying to tell her I had guard duty tonight.

_I'll clear your schedule for the week. _

I shook my head again and looked around for something to show her my next clue. She needed to know that fighting only exhilarated me when it was with Dimitri. Anything else just made me really focus. Finally, I gave up and just shook my head again.

She looked confused. _What? Why not? Do you need an alibi?_

I hadn't thought of that, but it was a good idea.

_Okay, well… you're helping Christian train! That's a good idea._

Christian's first act as king had been appointing guardians to train a group of willing Moroi in combat. I hadn't done many of the trainings, but it wasn't a bad plan. I nodded, but pointed at my watch again and shook my head.

_Wait. So the trainings are a good idea?_

More nodding.

_Then why can't you do it? _

Suddenly I remembered the phone in my pocket. I pulled it out and found a picture of Dimitri and me together a few months ago and showed her.

_Oh! Dimitri. Duh. He can train with you. _She smiled smugly._ There, it's settled. _

I didn't really have any time to argue because just then, the guardian in lead needed help remembering a key code. The rest of the walk was silent, but my gears were turning.

Lissa was right about a powerful emotion; simply remembering things wasn't doing the trick. I had to actually _pull _her in. But how was I going to explain this to Dimitri?

"_Uh, hey babe. So we're going to experiment with the bond by fighting and showing Lissa the rush I get. When should we start?" _

That would go over so well. I wished there was a better option; if there was, I couldn't think of it. Lissa was right. Should I tell Dimitri? He wouldn't like the idea of being part of our little "project." What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right?

I hated it, but if we were going to make any progress with our bond, we had to try. Just before she close the curtain on her feeding room, I whispered "No telling Dimitri."

_Are you sure? _She asked.

I nodded, even though I wasn't.


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"How's training treating you, Hathaway?" Hans asked.

I was in the mail room in the guardian building, shuffling through junk mail and weird Russian newspapers with pictures of St. Basil's and the metro on them. Hans, the head of court guardians, was in casual wear (something that I don't even think his mother saw him in more than once a year,) standing too-close over my shoulder.

I shrugged. "It's going alright. Dimitri is a better teacher than I am, but he's patient with us all. They're quick learners."

He nodded. "Do you need any replacements? Usually we switch out every other week, but King Christian hasn't issued any replacement orders. I'm sure if you needed them-"

"No, no," I interrupted. "We're fine. Really, we don't mind." I smiled, hoping it made it more believable.

He nodded again, believing me. What I couldn't tell Hans was that the reason Christian hadn't issued anything was because Lissa wanted Dimitri and me to be in charge of training for a while. Short of intimacy, fighting was the only time my emotions were strong enough to pull her in. It was one of our last cards to play, and it was failing. Two weeks had passed, I was tired of training slow Moroi, and Lissa was still no closer to seeing into my head than Dimitri was to having sex with me. I didn't know who was worse; me, Lissa, or Dimitri. I did know that this stupid bond was ticking me off.

I noticed he was holding a stack of blue release forms. "Who's taking time off?" It wasn't often that guardians asked for vacations.

"Uh, another guardian you don't know. Maternity leave."

"Huh. The same my mom covered for at the wedding?"

"Yes. Listen," he said uncomfortably, "don't mention this. Confidentiality."

"Right," I nodded.

He said goodbye, taking his mystery blue sheet with him. I stared after him, trying to see any names with no luck. Guardians getting pregnant wasn't unheard of; my own mother had done it. But one being kept such a secret was unique. Our society was relatively small, which meant that news traveled fast. All I knew of this guardian was that she was being kept secret.

On my way out of the mail room, someone ran into me. The cluster of Russian newspapers I was holding went flying, along with the junk mail and my patience. "Watch it!" I barked.

"Sorry! Oh, I am so sorry. Let me help you." When I looked up I saw a brown-haired dhampir with eyes so similar to Lissa's, I blinked twice.

"Uh, thanks." I looked harder at her, still seeing those green eyes. "Who are you?" I asked.

We finished gathering papers and stood. She rose over a head taller than me, but held out a perky hand. "I'm Alexis Wilson. Aren't you Rose Hathaway?"

I was having a hard time looking away from her eyes. _Lissa would not like another sibling, _I thought. "Yeah. How'd you know that?"

"Oh," she said matter-of-factly, "everyone knows that. You're famous."

"Er… thanks?" Who was this chick?

"You're welcome. I need some help."

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that. "Okay, what can I do?"

"Can you tell me where to find the Queen?"

She looked around behind me, like Lissa would magically pop up at the mention of her name. "Yes. But I can't let you see her without preauthorization. Do you have a meeting?"

Alexis ran a hand through her hair and nodded. "Right. No. I do not have an appointment with her. Can I make one?"

Honestly, I had no idea. But I didn't know anything about Alexis, so I lied. "Sorry, you can't. At least, not without waiting a while. Usually she only sees council members and family on short notice. Other citizens have to wait longer."

"Makes sense. How long is "longer?""

I shrugged. "I have no idea. I kind of see her whenever I want to."

She perked up. "Can you take me to her?"

"No. No way." I shook my head, even though I knew Lissa was on break between council meetings. "I'm sorry."

Her face fell and she sighed. "Well, can you help me find a place to eat around here?"

I thought about it for a minute, but realized all I had to do before tonight's training was be painfully avoided by Dimitri. Anything was better than that. "What do you want to eat?"

"I don't eat gluten. Or dairy."

"That's a buzzkill. What _do _you eat?" Life wouldn't be life without ice cream and cheesy breadsticks. I felt sorry for her.

"Overpriced bread and gross burritos."

"Well," I laughed, "I don't know where to find those, but there's a grocery store a few buildings over. Let's try that."

We set off through the east grounds, heading toward dhampir housing. The grocery store, along with coffee shops and a tattoo parlor, sat in the building's basement. Alexis was quiet on the walk there, which gave me time to scope her out. She had long, lanky features (her neck and fingers especially). Those Dragomir-green eyes got darker when we went into the sun, which made me feel better about the potential of her being _another _"lost Dragomir."

She had creamy skin and shoulder-length, sort-of-blond-but-kind-of-brown hair that was tucked into a ponytail. On her neck I saw two molnija marks, which impressed me. She looked about the same age as me, and even though I'd killed too many Strigoi to count, that was incredibly rare. For her to have two marks meant she was good at what we did.

"So, where are you from?" I asked while we waited for the elevator to take us to the basement.

"Idaho."

"Cool. I've only been to Idaho a couple times. Mostly the top part, the "panhandle," I think it's called?"

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Yep, sure is. Are you going to ask me any questions about potatoes? Please don't."

Man, she was good. I bit my tongue and thought of something else. "How long have you been in Pennsylvania?"

"Just one day," she said.

"What brings you here?" I asked. She really wanted to see Lissa, but why?

"I need to talk to the Queen. I told you that."

"Right. Why do you need to talk to her?"

She smiled again and arched an eyebrow. "Are you the Queen?"

Point taken. "Okay then. Well, we can't talk about potatoes or why you so desperately need to see Lissa. What can we talk about?

The elevator dinged and doors opened. We watched a group of guardians shuffle out and then stepped in. I pushed the blue "B" button and looked to her for a response.

"We can talk about where I can stay until I get what I came for?"

Court was massive. Locals believed it was some prestigious private college for Catholic's, which gave us plenty of reason to add buildings. There were at least ten different places for her to stay inside court itself, but the rooms were built for Moroi royalty (at least until Lissa could get the council to approve four more commercial buildings for those non-royals that came to visit,) and got pricey. "What's your budget like?" I asked.

She ran a hand through her stray bangs and smiled bitterly. "I have no budget. I just need a shower and a bed."

"Right after you get expensive bread and nasty burritos, right?" We smiled at each other and spent the rest of the ride in silence.

"Man, that is expensive," I said as I saw her pick out a $6 loaf of bread. It really wasn't a loaf; more like a half of a loaf, squished down into the mold of a real loaf.

"Mhm. It's a pain."

"I've never heard of a dhampir having celiac's?"

"Yeah, it's pretty rare. My mom has it, so I just blame her."

"Huh."

She looked at me with a sarcastic smile on her face. "Aren't you going to ask me if my mom is a dhampir, Moroi, or human?"

"Uh, no?" Having a dhampir mother would be totally normal, that's usually how it went. If her mother was Moroi, that would also be okay. Different, but okay. It wasn't uncommon for Moroi women to get with dhampir men. When a baby happened because of that, the child usually got put up for adoption or was raised with the father. The other option however, was a Moroi man and a human woman, which was rare and taboo. The gleam in her eyes told me that I wasn't going to like her answer.

"My mother is human," she said mischievously, like she wanted me to react badly.

I swallowed hard, but kept my voice level. "A human?"

She nodded.

"And she raised you?"

Nodded again.

"She knows about… all of this?"

"She sure does."

This was too unbelievable. "You're a guardian?"

"Mhm."

"And your dad?"

She shook her head. "All I know is that he's rich. Hence the no budget thing."

"Right." I swallowed again and tried to process it. Moroi and humans hadn't gotten together since ancient times. It was considered completely wrong and somewhat disgusting in our world today. "Can I ask where you went to high school?" St. Vlad's wasn't too far from Idaho, but I never saw her at school, or heard her name. Someone with her family life was bound to get talked about.

"Kuna High School, Kuna Idaho. Go Kavemen," she said dryly.

"Kavemen?"

"Kavemen. With a 'K.'"

"No way," I gasped.

She sighed. "Sadly, yes."

"But your molnija marks?"

"What about them," she winked.

The more I talked to her the more I felt like I was talking to myself. Except, well, a version of me with crazy family ties. "You know what I'm talking about," I rolled my eyes.

"Can I ask you a question first?"

"What?"

"Belikov. Is he really 6'7"?"

"Yes," I laughed. "Why?"

She shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "When you're as tall as I am it's nice to know that someone out there is taller. I've heard rumors, but was never sure. I figure you'd know." That reminded me of how she knew who I was before I introduced myself.

"How'd you know who I was? And how do you know Dimitri and I are together?"

"Are you _kidding_ me?" she scoffed. "You two are legends. No one in our world could avoid hearing your names. It's pretty pathetic," she added.

I rolled my eyes again, but didn't ask for more. The legend thing made me uncomfortable. Neither Dimitri nor I did what we did for the status. We did it because we'd spent our entire lives training to protect; that was something we believed in more than ourselves.

"Molnija marks. Spill." I said as we checked out.

"Ah, right. Well like I said, I grew up in Kuna and went to high school there. Other than money, my father has connections. He made a deal with some local guardians to train me and my older sister so that we'd be on track with everyone else our age. A week after graduation, we got jumped by some Strigoi in Washington. We were with some friends, guardians that had trained us, and between the four of us, the pack of six that took us on was done for."

I nodded in approval. "Impressive. Where's your sister now?"

She shook her head. "Maybe another day. For now, I need to go sleep. Point me in the direction of a room?"

The look on her face made me nervous. Obviously her sister was off-limits… "There," I said, pointing across a small garden that separated our building from the nicest guest-housing that court had. "Tell them that I sent you. You'll get a room quicker."

A small smile came to her face and we said goodbye. I made a mental note to check in on her tomorrow and headed for Lissa's room. A hot bath in her ginormous Jacuzzi was still better than going to my room where Dimitri was.

It wasn't an immediate pain, but my bruise would be wicked sweet. I was used to it, though. My line of work wasn't exactly "gentle." Dimitri wouldn't feel bad about it, either. I didn't want him to. We beat each other up all the time; perks of the trade.

My right leg, where he kicked hard just a second ago, was throbbing. I easily ignored it though, what else could I have done? There was a group of Moroi standing around the padded floor in a circle, watching Dimitri and I demonstrate targeting. He had the upper hand, towering over me on offense, but I knew that in yesterday's training I'd badly bruised his left knee. My eyes wanted to look at it so badly, but any break of focus would have clued him in on my plan.

We danced around a little bit, throwing punches, dodging hits. When I knew I had waited long enough, I made my move. With an aching leg but an awesome hit, I punched in his knee cap. He winced from the blow, giving me just enough time to land a hit to his head, which took him to the floor. I pinned him down and the familiar electricity that we felt around each other (especially in fights,) sparked. An itch in my head came then, and I knew Lissa was trying to get in. Dimitri was down, our eyes were locked, and we were both panting. This was the closest to sex we'd gotten in weeks, the closest Lissa would get to enough emotion to "pull her in."

But, in another familiar move, I locked her out. Frustration rolled through me as I pushed off of Dimitri and growled. His eyes clouded over with confusion and hurt, which made me feel horrible. I wanted so badly to tell him that when I pushed, pulled, and snagged away from him in our fights, it wasn't becauseof _him_. It was because my best friend was trying to use the psychic bond between us to get inside my head, but the only time short of sex that she could do that was during the intense fighting between my boyfriend and me. _No wonder Dimitri won't touch me in bed, _I frowned.

"Does anyone have any questions?" he asked, standing up. He was going to ignore it perfectly during training.

The group was full of eager-eyed Moroi, but Zoey Martin, a waitress from my favorite café, was the first one to speak-up. "How does Rose take you down? She's a foot shorter than you." Group members nodded their heads in agreement.

I smiled a little when I answered. "At first I couldn't. But there are other things to compensate for size, like speed and strength. With time and work, all of you will be able to take out your opponents, no matter their size."

"Can you show me a specific move? Because most of my opponents are going to tower over me." Angela, a red-headed Moroi with a crazy deep southern accent and the fieriest temper, laughed when she asked the question. I wasn't sure how tall she was exactly, but the poor girl only came to my shoulder, and I was 5'7".

"Sure." Dimitri, knowing already what I was going to do, came and stood in front of me. He swung for my head while I ran for his stomach. Our bodies hit the wall hard, which _really _hurt, but the exercise worked flawlessly.

Angela smiled and then volunteered to try. Her first attempt was weak and Dimitri pushed her back. Her second and third were better though, and by her fourth, she had him down on the ground. "My mama would be so proud," she clapped.

Dayton, a middle-aged man with a shiny bald head, asked Dimitri to demonstrate how to defend yourself from the ground. In an exercise Dimitri taught me back at St. Vladimir's, I took defense on the floor while he swung at me from above. The entire time my heart raced. Heat crackled between us while I blocked hits. His hands were so, so quick, but in them I felt passion. Our bodies knew each other so well that it was like fighting myself. I felt Lissa try again, I felt her fail again, and I sighed again. He noticed and took over the class, answering a few more questions while I sulked in the corner.

I found Lissa sitting in the back, and glared.

_I'm sorry! _She thought._ I really am. After a week and a half of nothing, I think we should stop trying._

I didn't disagree. But I also didn't agree. This bond of ours had been a real stress for me lately. Since we decided to focus on controlling it, mine and Dimitri's shifts had been cut completely. Now we only did these nightly trainings, which gave us all day to spend together. To normal couples that would have been heaven. It _should _have been heaven to us too, but we stopped being normal when he started rejecting me a month ago, when the bond came back. The first few days we spent in bed, watching old movies and planning vacations. After a while though, lounging around wasn't enough. However, Dimitri was so terrified of Lissa popping in for a visit while we were getting it on, that he refused me every time. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't talk to him about it; I couldn't talk to anyone about it. Lissa knew it bothered me, Dimitri had to know, too. But neither of them wanted to do anything about it. It was the elephant in the room everywhere I went, the elephant that the two people closest to me wouldn't let me acknowledge.

On the fifth day I got so frustrated that I took to running. Even though I was a guardian in peak physical condition, I was _not _a fan of running. But you know what was better than my best friend failing to figure out our psychic bond and my boyfriend denying me? Running. Running was better. This morning, I hadn't even bothered to wait for him to wake up. I showered and spent the entire day puttering around court and taking a mysterious dhampir to the grocery store so I could avoid the intense awkwardness. Maybe stopping this mad plan was the best.

What if it wasn't, though? There was still so much we didn't know, but I had to believe that we were double bonded for a reason. Not fulfilling that reason had to have some kind of consequence, right?

I kept my racing thoughts to myself for the last half hour, and then said goodbye to the Moroi. As the group left, Angela gave me a tight hug and squeezed Dimitri's hand. "You two are just perfect for each other! The bee's knees, really."

_Oh great, _I thought. _Dimitri and I are the bee's knees. I bet bees have more sex than we do. _

"Well you guys, yet another fantastic training!" Lissa's smile was half genuine and half, "Rose is pissed because of me so I'm going to suck-up."

"Thanks," said Dimitri.

"Yeah, thanks," I glared.

Her smile fell. _I'm so sorry, _she thought.

"Liss," Dimitri asked, "could you leave us for tonight? Rose needs to blow off some steam." His voice was light, but I could sense the fury in it.

"Of course," she smiled. She shot me a message of, _Good luck! _through the bond.

Before the door latched behind her, he was standing so close to me I could see the veins in his eyes. "Rose, if you don't tell me what's bothering you, I'm going to go mad." His voice was frantic.

"Nothing," I lied. I tried to pull my wrists from his grasp and failed. "Dimitri, let me go."

It wasn't often that we actually fought. Sure, I punched him a lot and he kicked me like, every day, but real fighting? Fighting that wasn't brought on by spirit madness, him being an undead, evil being, or any kind of spirit hallucination, was really rare. So rare that I could only remember doing it once about seven months ago, and it lasted less than three minutes. From the look on his face, I could tell this was going to be our second one.

"Let me go," I growled.

His voice was just as fierce. "Are you going to talk?"

"Nothing to talk about."

"You're a liar," he glared.

"And you need to let me go."

With a jerk, he let my wrists go and walked to the line. "Laps. Now."

"Are you kidding me?"

"You need to blow off whatever it is you're not telling me. Running will work just fine in doing that."

"Who do you think you are?" I shouted.

"Someone who deserves answers!" he bellowed.

The timber of his voice made me jump. I closed my eyes and breathed deep before I answered. In a level tone I said "You have nothing to worry about."

"Right. Nothing. You won't tell me the truth and avoid being around me. That's not nothing, Rose."

I swallowed, trying so hard not to let my control snap. "I'm going to bed."

"No, you're not." He moved to stand in front of the door. I took a swing at his head, but he saw it coming. In a swift movement, his arms were around my waist. He potato-sack carried me to a pile of mats and threw me hard onto them. "Talk."

With all of the pent-up rejection and stress of the last month, I was a molten-hot pot of angry woman. There was no way I was going to give him what he wanted without ripping his head off, and I seriously didn't want to do that.

I folded my arms and scowled up at him. "You're not my teacher anymore. Get out of my way."

"I'm not you're teacher, but you're acting like a child."

Oh, he did it then. I let all of the anger and emotion that had plagued me for weeks file to the surface. My skin was on fire and my vision was ringed red. I stood up and pushed him back so fast, he staggered and fell. It was a perfect position to look down at him and let it all out. "Give me one child that could deal with what I deal with. Give me one child that could wake up, _every _night, to a life that isn't their own. Give me a child that could spend their days with a person they love so much it makes them ache, and _not _be bothered when that person completely rejects them. You won't _touch _me in bed! You hardly even kissme. I get avoided and ignored. This entire, messed-up situation gets ignored.

"And don't you dare lecture me on what I will and will not do Dimitri, because at least I do _something._ You sit back like a coward, waiting for something, some mysterious change, to make it okay to _love me again._ Man up! _I _avoid _you? _Maybe it's because you act like I'm some… some cold you don't want to catch! Maybe it's because this entire bond has made me truly crazy again and you're scared. I honestly don't know! But what I do know is that I will not stand in this hot gym and be humiliated anymore." By now tears were streaming down my cheeks and I was shaking. His beautiful face was full of despair and shock, but he didn't move while I gathered my things and moved to the door.

Before I left the room, I turned back to him. "For the record, Lissa still can't get in my head. That's why, at the end of each fight, I'm mad. Because she tries and tries. Nothing we do works, but we keep at it. It's breaking her hopes, but it's breaking my mind. I don't know how to tell her that."

I left and cut across the court garden, wishing that the early sunlight could dry my tears.


	7. Chapter Seven: Part One

**AN: A HUGE thank you to all you readers. I'm seriously humbled and amazed every time I see reviews and reads. You guys totes magotes rock.**

**The second part of this chapter should come no later than this weekend. Again, sorry for the slow updating a couple weeks ago. I'm back on track though, so we should be golden! Expect more each weekend. **

**You people are really good at giving feedback. I've legitimately enjoyed reading your opinions and ideas—keep 'em coming! They help me write the unwritten parts. **

Chapter Seven: Part One

I woke to Lissa's hair dryer blasting on high. The couch in her on-suite living room wasn't really comfortable; it felt like I hadn't slept. My achy muscles flexed as I stood and went to her.

_Oh wow, _she thought when she saw me. Regret filled her, but just before she could vocalize her (probably) awesome apology, I put a hand up to stop her.

"I know I look like crap. Don't mention it." There were bags under my eyes and my hair looked like a birds nest.

Her face shined with compassion and she pulled me into a hug. "Are you going to stay here today?"

Last night after I blew up on my boyfriend, I came straight to Lissa. Luckily her husband was already asleep, because when I made it to her room I was sobbing. Poor Christian would have sat awkwardly while I fell apart in Lissa's lap.

What I'd said to Dimitri was true. I meant it and did not regret saying it. But how harshly it came out... I wasn't proud of that. The look on his face as I left the gym kept me up most of the night. I'd truly hurt him. Stress and spirit darkness had turned me into the Wicked Witch of the West. Except, the Wicked Witch looked better than I did.

It wasn't like us to fight, but it also wasn't like us to avoid each other. Where did the happy, loving couple that we used to be go? I really missed them.

"No," I sighed. "I have to face him. Last night it was all me, all my problems, all my crap. I need to know his side. I meant what I said, but I don't want him to think I hate him."

"He doesn't think you hate him," she chastised.

"How do you know that? You didn't hear me, Liss."

"It's not what I don't know, but what I _do _know. He adores you, Rose. I know that you're it for him, and he's it for you. Whatever was said last night can't be so bad that all of that gets forgotten."

I sighed. "I do love him." But does he know that anymore?

"And he loves you." She hugged me, slipping compulsion through to me in little waves. Even though I hated to admit it, I was grateful for the warmth it brought.

I took a brush to my insane bed-head and a swig of mouth wash to my breath of death, and felt more presentable. After another hug from Lissa, I gathered my things and left for my room.

It was a cloudy day in late April. Realizing the month made me sad because it felt like just yesterday that we'd come back to court for the wedding and summer break. Before I knew it, Lissa and I would be spending our weeks at Lehigh, studying and testing. More importantly, that meant we'd only see Christian and Dimitri on weekends. With the new developments in our relationship, imagining not seeing him put a nervous ache in my chest.

When I came to the door, I hesitated. The Dimitri I knew was kind and patient. In all other aspects of our lives he was fair, levelheaded. We never fought like this though, so it was completely uncharted territory. I honestly didn't know what to expect._ But you won't find out just standing here. _

I opened the door and called, "Dimitri?"

Silence. I saw the empty bed and didn't hear the shower running. A check into our closet and kitchen turned up empty, too. Just as I reached for my phone to send him a text, the spare bedroom door opened.

He stood in the clothes he wore yesterday and looked as tired as I felt. His hair came in messy waves to his shoulders and the five o'clock shadow around his chin made him look older. I couldn't remember ever seeing him look this… bad. Droopy eyes, slumped shoulders, bloodshot eyes. Even during our bloody, ragged fights he looked better.

"Roza," he whispered hoarsely.

I swallowed back tears. "I went to Lissa's. I'm sorry I didn't call."

He shook his head. "Please, don't apologize. You have nothing to apologize for."

The sadness in his voice made me feel sick. Without thinking about it, I went to him and buried my face in his chest. We clung to each other, perfectly fitting together like always.

"I'm sorry," I sobbed.

His voice shook when he said, "You have nothing to apologize for."

"I was a royal-"

"Stop. Please." He pulled back and cupped my face in his hands. "It's my turn to talk."

He took a deep breath and swallowed, like I'd done at the door. Whatever he had to say made him nervous. I braced myself for the worst, for the "You're horrible," part. I braced myself for the breakdown.

Only, there wasn't one. His voice turned soft, sweet, and he kissed my forehead. "I love you, Rosemarie Hathaway. Truly, I do. The fact that you doubted that… that you thought I didn't want to be around you, makes me sick. I'm ashamed of myself. You deserve the best, and lately I've been far from it." Those brown eyes looked so deep into me, I felt naked.

"Rose, if I live the rest of my life doing nothing but making sure you're happy, I'll have lived the fullest, best life possible. You are my everything. I'm so sorry."

"But how I treated you last night was-"

"Exactly what I needed. You're right; I've been waiting around like a coward."

I shook my head in disbelief. "You're supposed to be mad at me. People who love each other don't talk like I did to you."

He smiled. "Rose-logic never fails to amaze me. I'm the one in trouble and _you _are blaming yourself."

"I don't regret what I said. You've been a huge jerk."

He laughed. "Yes I have. What do you regret?"

"_How _I said it. I never wanted spirit to snap me again after Victor, but last night it did."

"Last night wasn't just spirit, Rose. You meant what you said. How you said it just made me listen quicker."

I smiled. "Well you've got a pretty thick skull. I had to do something to bring my point home."

He rolled his eyes. "You crazy woman."

"I'm not crazy _yet._ But I am sorry."

"So am I."

Our lips found each other and I melted into him. His strong arms pulled me in and wound us close, making my heart pound. The last month of pent-up tension was making its way to the surface in both of us. Desperation clung to every part of me while he carried me to the bed. His fingers knotted in my hair, my hands roamed his chest. It was _finally _happening, and I couldn't wait.

Just before clothes started coming off, I felt that all-too-familiar push inside my head. Only, it wasn't a push. It was a _shove. _The kind of shove that, in person, would get your teeth knocked in for. Something was _inside my head, _waltzing around clumsily.

I gasped and pushed him off. "What's wrong?" he asked frantically.

"Lissa," I breathed.

His eyes widened and he asked me something, but I didn't hear it. All I could do was feel her, _in my head. _

_Liss?_ I yelled.

_Rose… Rose I'm in! _I felt her excitement roll over me.

_Get out!_

_No, _she begged. _Please don't kick me out. We finally did it!_

_NO! We did nothing! I'm still wearing all of my clothes. He hasn't even kissed anywhere fun! _

_Oh… I didn't realize…_

_Really? Really?! You didn't notice anything strange? _

_Not really, _she laughed. _I see what you're seeing. That's it. _

_You don't feel anything else? _This was a good sign. My raging hormones could at least be mine for a little longer.

_Nope. Am I supposed to?_

_Yes? No? I'm not exactly sure._

_Oh, this is so exciting! Wow, your apartment is clean. Of course, it's you and Dim-_

_LISS! _

_Sorry, sorry. Should I leave? _

Seriously, the universe hates me. _Ugh, please. _

_Well, if you really want me to…_

_I really want you to. _

With that, I shoved a wall up, blocking her out. Except for… there was still a small trickle of something at the back of my mind. It was like a little stream running inside my head, something that had never been there before.

"Rose, Rose!"

Dimitri was shaking me, a frantic look on his face. "Sorry," I breathed.

"Lissa?"

Lissa. That woman would hear from me later. "She's fine. Just… startled," I lied. Why was I lying to him? Oh, right. I wanted, no _needed, _to sleep with him.

"Are you okay?" His eyes still held passion, but the guardian mode in him would easily override any other inklings if I didn't shut them down.

"Mhm. Now, where were we?" I pushed a hard kiss to his lips and waited the four seconds it took for him to kiss back. We picked up where we left off, except I kept an eye on the trickle in my head. Lissa couldn't pop in for any more surprises right now. The bond would work itself out in time; the sexy Russian man in my bed demanded my attention right now.

My shirt was off when his phone started ringing. "Ignore it," I muttered through our kiss.

"That's the plan."

Minutes later, it rang again. "Dimitri," I sighed.

"I don't hear anything," he growled.

He "didn't hear anything" for the next two calls, but on the fifth ring, we were both done for.

"The universe despises us," I groaned.

He laughed while he answered. I rolled over and pulled my shirt back on. Anything we had going before was killed, completely dead, by my crazy psychic bond, and his persistent caller. "We should just give-"

I stopped talking when I saw his face; ghostly pale, and shocked. "Dimitri?" I climbed over to him and put my hand on his face. "Dimitri," I whispered.

He sat completely still for another minute, and then the call was over. In a flash he was in our closet, shoving clothes in a bag. "What's going on?"

The only answer I got was my coat and shoes, thrown at me. "Dimitri, what is going on?"

I followed him to the bathroom and watched him put toothbrushes and a comb in with our clothes. "Put on your shoes, now." Suddenly, I was in guardian mode. He was my partner and I trusted him. In three steps I had my shoes pulled on, and in five, we were out the door.

We ran out of our building at top speed. I had no idea where he was leading me, or why we had to sprint there, but I didn't ask questions. On our way he made frantic, angry calls in Russian. The people he spoke to didn't ask questions either, because each call was about twenty seconds long. He rounded the far corner of court, the one that sat behind the shopping building and was surrounded by ponds, to a runway. There sat a small, white plane. Guardians waited for us there, each of them on high alert. They only spoke to Dimitri though. I was ushered inside while the pilot started the plane and checked the systems.

No longer than ten minutes had passed since we were in our bedroom. What in the world had happened? Sitting there, strapped into a mystery airplane, going somewhere for some pressing reason, made me angry. Dimitri wasn't talking as the plane took off. He wasn't even looking at me. But a dark grief had spread over his face, one that I wanted to help relieve.

"Dimitri," I said, taking his hand. "Please tell me what's happened."

That sad, desperate look turned into pure fury. Dark eyes, full of anger, looked back at me. "Strigoi attacked Baia, and they took Viktoria."


End file.
